Crews with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) are cleaning up and making repairs after a sewer main break in Florissant, Missouri. The 21-inch sewer main is currently leaking into a tributary that flows into Coldwater Creek. While an exact determination for the break has not yet been made, heavy and unusually high levels of rain over the past 6 to 8 weeks most likely shifted and weakened the support the creek bank provides for the sewer. Thus, the creek bank gave way and the sewer “rolled out” from the bank.
Crews with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District (MSD) are cleaning up and making repairs after a sewer main break in Florissant, Missouri. The 21-inch sewer main is currently leaking into a tributary that flows into Coldwater Creek. While an exact determination for the break has not yet been made, heavy and unusually high levels of rain over the past 6 to 8 weeks most likely shifted and weakened the support the creek bank provides for the sewer. Thus, the creek bank gave way and the sewer “rolled out” from the bank.
The gravity sewer main break was reported yesterday by a resident near the 300 block of Jana Drive. MSD crews have contained the sewage to the tributary, where the flow has been blocked and MSD crews are pumping sewage back into the MSD system. Repairs will be ongoing throughout the day.
It is estimated that 200,000 gallons of sewage entered the tributary before it was blocked off, impacting almost 1,200 feet of the waterway. Signs have been posted in areas where the public may readily come into contact with affected section of this tributary. While there is no immediate threat to public health or safety, the public is asked to avoid contact with the tributary in this area while MSD crews make the necessary repairs and cleanup the affected area. If anyone should come into contact with the tributary in this area, they should immediately and thoroughly wash with soap and water.
The sewer main break was reported to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, as required by law.