Flushed pillowcase blamed for Alberton sewer backup

The city of Alberton on Dec. 31, 2021 became aware of a sewer system failure that created an issue of sewage backing up in a manhole on the west end of Parkway Drive. When the manhole became full, the sewage overflowed and was pushed back into at least one resident’s home.

City workers immediately looked into the problem and realized that one of two pumps that service that area of town had faltered. Over the next few days, the city water/sewer employee spent many hours in freezing cold weather troubleshooting the situation and ultimately replaced the bad pump.

When this was done, the system went back to operating properly. Then around mid-January the other pump shut down, again leaving the portion of Alberton with a single operational pump.

Another pump was ordered, which wasn’t an easy process as these pumps are uniquely designed and cost around $7,000 each. There are no dealers in Montana, nor could one be located along the west coast. As of press time, it was on a flatbed truck in Oklahoma, northbound.

The city has been in contact with the DEQ and there have been no fines or citations. The sewer and lagoon were never completely shut down as the sewage backup was contained to a few homes while most customers were unaware that anything was wrong.

Nonetheless, those who were having sewage back up were mad as hornets. The city employee who oversaw the Alberton sewer system reported that he was doing everything that he could, but until the new pump arrived, he could not repair the problem.

This issue was discussed at the Alberton City Council meeting Feb. 1, and it was decided that they would reach out to an engineer they have worked with in the past to see if there is a way to move or reroute the manhole that is leaking. This was not the first time that this exact issue has happened since the system was installed many years ago.

Rosella ‘Rosie” Zimmerman, an Alberton resident, said that the people at the end of the line on Parkway were having even more sewage backing up into their houses.

“And there is a river of raw sewage running down Parkway (Drive) forming a pond,” she stated.

Zimmerman said she made a big "stink" about it on Feb. 7 by calling the DEQ, the Gov. Greg Gianforte's office and local media to let them know what was happening and that the Alberton residents were at the end of their rope.

“Many people in town didn’t know this was even happening as it’s at the end of town that people don’t use often," she said.

Zimmerman isn’t sure from all the notifications that she made who called septic pump tanks but three showed up and pumped 12,000 gallons that day. The plan, she said, was that the trucks would arrive daily for pumping until the sewage system was up and running on its own.

Alberton Mayor John Bigart III announced his resignation Feb. 7 and will make it official at the March 1 meeting and answer any questions residents may have.

A portion of his letter of resignation states, “Throughout the last 10 years (being on City Council and as mayor), I have seen so many comments about how things should be done differently and how our town can be run better, and I am willing to step down so that they can step up.”

The conversation with the engineer paid off because on the afternoon of Feb. 9, both pumps were fully operational after some repairs. The seals on both pumps were replaced and reason for failure was discovered. A pillowcase had been flushed down a toilet and clogged the mechanisms causing the seals to burst.

“That being said,” shared Bigart, "we now have a backup that should be here any day. Which at this point is all good news. We also have good news in the staffing area, as this week we hired a new water/sewer maintenance operator. This individual will be great for the town.”

Bigart closed the contentious week, not by reneging on his resignation, but with a statement to the community.

“One thing that I feel is important to share, is that all over social media people were talking about how the town never did anything to upgrade or maintain our very old system. This is absolutely not correct and if these 'concerned citizens' ever attended a council meeting they would quickly realize that there have been several large projects that have been done and another is scheduled to start this spring. The previous projects included a huge upgrade to our lagoon and to the functionality of our spring fed water system. The project this spring will be to upgrade some of the towns water mains, replace meters and some other work. The town will have to pay for some of this work, but we did a great job applying for and receiving state and federal funds that will ultimately make this upgrade possible.”

Alberton City Council meetings are held the first Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Community Center/Library. The next meeting will be held March 1.