Waste water threatening Lake Superior
Washburn, Wisconsin is in Bayfield County.
A storage basin containing waste water at the Waste Treatment Plant in Washburn, Wisconsin, is on track to overflow due to the fast melting of snow, that is threatening Lake Superior. At 7:40 AM Wednesday, Washburn City officials said that the basin made it through the night. Crews continue to monitor the situation.
According to a post on the City of Washburn Government Facebook page, the storage basin at Washburn’s treatment plant typically takes in 175,000 to 200,000 gallons of water per day. In four days, it took in over 3.4 million gallons. The basin took in 1.6 million gallons on Monday alone, which officials say exceeded the designed emergency capacity of 1.3 million gallons per day.
The City of Washburn is expecting the basin to overfill sometime on April 12th.
WDIO News has a crew in Washburn and we will have updates later today and on WDIO News this evening.
In Duluth, the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District is dealing with high flows of water coming into the plant. WLSSD says the increased water flow has already been diverting to storage basins in several locations. Read more.