By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

The city of Hays Water Resources Department continues to manually pump waste today from the sewer lift station at 27th and U.S. 183 Bypass after a leak was discovered late Wednesday afternoon in a forced sewer main line along nearby Big Creek.

Jeff Crispin, director of water resources, said Friday morning his crew decided not to find and temporarily fix the leak.

“This is an old line, and we’re going to abandon it for safety’s sake,” he said. Crispin estimates the 10-inch sewer line is buried 15 to 20 feet below the bank level of Big Creek.

A new line will be installed parallel to the existing line. Crispin said materials have been ordered and he expects the supplies to arrive Monday.

The city immediately shut down the sewer line and nearby lift station that serves that line after the leak was reported by a farmer who saw excess water flowing from the side bank of Big Creek.

There is no contamination of the city water supply, Crispin said. He noted the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s northwest unit in Hays asked for two samples of the Big Creek water late Thursday afternoon, which were sent to Salina for analysis.

There has not been any interruption of water or sewer service to city customers, and installation of the new pipeline will not require service interruption.

Hertel Tank Service has been hired to help with pump removal of the sewer line contents into trucks as needed and transporting it to the city wastewater treatment plant.

Crispin said manual pumping at the lift station began at Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. and continued until approximately 1 a.m. Friday.

Crews from the city and Hertel Tank Service were back on the scene after sunrise this morning.