Grant will help protect sewers from floods

By Jeremy Twitchell

Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008 | midnight

Henderson has received a sizable federal grant to help it avoid a repeat of the 2005 incident in which floods wiped out a sewage line and spilled its contents into Pittman Wash.

The city commissioned a vulnerability assessment of its sewer system after that incident, Henderson Department of Utility Services spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said, and after presenting the results to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, won a $378,000 grant to address the weaknesses it found.

"It was something we don't want to have happen again," Richards said.

The grant is part of FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation Program. With the required 25 percent match from the city, it will give Utility Services $504,000 to begin work on a number of small projects throughout the Pittman and Pecos washes to protect sewer lines.

Richards said the city is still looking for additional grants to cover the projects.

The sewer lines that are buried underneath the floors of the washes are protected only by the dirt above them. When the flood hit in 2005, Richards said, it tore away the dirt and left the line exposed, causing it to rupture.

The city plans to address the issue by uncovering the at-risk sewer lines, encasing them in concrete and then reburying them, Richards said.

"Once the project is done, you won't be able to tell we've done anything," she said.

There is no time frame for when work might begin while the city still works to secure funding for the project, Richards said.

Jeremy Twitchell is a reporter for the Home News. He can be reached at 990-8928 or [email protected].