Thursday night’s storms led to a sewage spill in South Haven Township that has since been resolved.
South Haven Department of Public Works Director Dana Burd tells us due to a power outage, communication was lost with a lift station downstream from a property in the 73,000 block of M-43 around 10 p.m.
“We did have a small sewer backup as well as several electrical outages in our crews were out cleaning up downed trees throughout the night,” Burd said. “When we get a big storm like that, it’s not uncommon for a lift station to lose a little communication or for the pumps to be overwhelmed if we get a little bit of rain.”
About 1,500 gallons of sanitary sewer discharge leaked on to the property. Burd says it’s been fixed, and the city is cleaning it up.
Meanwhile, city crews were busy with the storm.
“We certainly did get hit with a large wind event and our electrical line crews were out until 4.30 in the morning, pretty much from 10 p.m. to 4:30 in the morning getting power back restored to the community. Then a lot of people came in early today to work on storm cleanup.”
Burd says the crews managed to get power restored to most of the customers who lost it. South Haven is one of about 40 Michigan communities that has its own municipal power. That can enable restoration to be faster in some cases.
Burd says one sad note from the storm was the loss of an iconic and stately tree at the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum. It didn’t do much damage to the building, but it’s now going to have to be removed by city crews.
