Sewer Water Floods SF Apartments Again

SIOUX FALLS, SD - A sanitary sewer bypass is up and running in Sioux Falls, but it's happened again: sewer water's backed up into homes.

Around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, managers at a central Sioux Falls apartment building reported sewage backing up into 3 buildings again. About two and a half inches of wastewater's coming up through the drains on the bottom levels in 12 apartments.

No one is living in those units right now, because managers moved them after the area flooded with sewage on Wednesday.

"To have already started the cleanup process with it happening the last time and now we have to start from almost square one again is frustrating," manager Ellison Murray-Cutrer said.  

City officials say a peak flow may have caused their efforts to lose some ground. The city's added another pipe and pumping system to help move wastewater from busted underground pipe near the penitentiary. But at about 5:30 p.m., they added two more pumps to help.

People with the city have been knocking on doors of residents who saw sewage backup when the pipeline broke earlier this week. They want to see if it's impacting anyone else.