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DEVOLA -- Washington County is trying to find a partial sewer blockage that has cost the county $30,000 so far.
"We started seeing a high flow alarm a few weeks ago and that's not normal," said Washington County Engineer Roger Wright.
The alarm indicated a high level in the wet well in the Devola pump station. All the effluent for the existing Devola sewer system, which Wright referred to as "basically sewage," comes into the wet well and is normally pumped to the Marietta wastewater treatment plant.
"We noticed the wet well elevation isn't falling like it normally does when the pumps are on," he said.
According to Wright, the county originally thought recent flooding of the Muskingum River was the cause of the wet well's high level. The pump was tested during the flooding and found to be operational.
They are still getting effluent to flow out of the wet well. This means the sewer line is only partially blocked, he said, and this should not be affecting homeowners.
The partial blockage is causing the county to not pump "efficiently," according to Wright. The partial blockage is located somewhere between the Devola pump station and the tie-in to Marietta's sewer system at the intersection of Colgate Drive and Glendale Road, which measures at 8,000 feet, he said.
"There's a blockage in this line but we're not sure where it is," Washington County Commissioner James Booth said. "It could be anywhere in the line."
Wright said they came up with an emergency repair plan and decided the most likely place for a partial blockage would be where there is a sag in the sewer line where it crosses under a few streams near Marietta Bible College along State Route 60.
Booth said Wright and his staff have been working tirelessly to find the blockage.
According to Wright, the county will put manholes into the sewer line to provide access and then use a jetting machine to clear the line and blow any effluent and the clog itself to the access point and suck it out with a vacuum truck.
"We did that for the first time (Thursday)," Wright said.
He said they used a 1,000 foot jetting machine and were able to clear 700-1,000 feet of the line. After doing so, the blockage was still there.
The county plans on running a camera into the pipe through an access point to find the partial blockage and will add a second access point to the sewer line on Monday, Wright said.
"We're hopeful we get lucky ... and the clog gets resolved," he said.
In the meantime, the county has been using a pump truck to manually empty the wet well and haul the effluent to the Marietta sewage treatment plant. This has cost them $30,000 over the last two weeks, Wright said.
"This situation is an emergency because it's costing the county money to have sewage transported with the trucks," Booth said.
Wright said he is hopeful they will find the blockage in the second access point. If not, they will continue the same process until it is found and resolved.
Michelle Dillon can be reached at mdillon@newsandsentinel.com
Kristen Hainkel can be reached at khainkel@newsandsentinel.com