The City of Crookston Public Works and Water Departments are busy preparing for a possible high-water event as the water begins to rise along the Red Lake River. As of about 5:00 p.m. Monday night, the water had risen about 1.42 feet over the previous 48 hours to 7.02 feet in Crookston.
Public Works Director Pat Kelly said the staff, especially those who haven’t gone through a high-water event in the past have been getting taking around town to be shown the locations of valves, reviewing when they close and where the City may set up water pumps. “I’ve had the Superintendent [Brandon Carlson] taking guys who haven’t been through a high water event before out to show them where the valves are, what we do, where we set our pumps, going over our sheets that show us when we need to close values and generally what we do during a highwater event,” said Kelly. “In the meantime, we’ve been moving snow in the areas we’re potentially going to be sandbagging. It looks like Riverside will be sandbagged and a couple of other small areas. Luckily we’ve had our projects so we don’t have a lot of areas that need [sandbagging].”
Kelly says he and the rest of the Public Works staff are keeping an eye on both the river and the forecast as the temperatures and runoff begin to increase. “We’re keeping a watchful eye on both the river and the forecast from the National Weather Service to determine what level we need to protect to,” said Kelly. “We’ve been checking our supplies, counting sandbags, getting those things ready. In fact, the Sentence to Serve last week was filling sandbags for us and we’ve palleted them and are storing them in heated areas to potentially start sandbagging this week.”
The Public Works Department will begin closing off storm sewer valves just prior to flood stage and once the water reaches about 16 feet they’ll go to 24-hour shifts. “At a little less than 13 feet we close our first value,” said Kelly. “Then from 13 feet on we’ll close values in the lower neighborhoods at various levels. As valves are closed the stormwater can’t get out through usual means so you’ll see those pumps out there to pump the water over the levee. Once we get to a certain point with run-off or number of valves closed our guys we’ll go to 24-hour shift to man and operate those pump stations as needed.”
While Kelly doesn’t expect any issues with the City’s sanitary sewer, he did think it wouldn’t be a bad idea for homes in the lower levels to plug their basement drains to give themselves that extra insurance. “In some of the lower additions, Sampson and Woods, it’s probably not a bad idea that once the river hits flood stage to put plugs in your basements,” said Kelly. “We don’t feel that our sanitary sewer system is going to be compromised but at this point, it certainly is a cheap bit of insurance you may have in case something does happen.”
