It’s unclear at this point how much rain deluged Chesterton this weekend--the rain gauge at the wastewater treatment plant was knocked over by heavy winds--but enough fell in any case to force the Utility to bypass on Sunday.

Interim Superintendent Mark O’Dell told the Chesterton Tribune today that the plant began flowing sewage into the Little Calumet River at 4 a.m. and ended at 8:30 p.m. By mid-morning, however, it was hard to tell just where the out-flow from the plant started and the in-flow of the river ended, once the rain-swollen Little Cal had breached its way into the facility.

The Utility has not yet determined the total gallonage of the bypass, O’Dell added.

This morning there were no reports of backups in basements, O’Dell said, but a crew was forced to man the Dickinson Road lift station from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday. One of the two 21,000-gallon Baker tanks on site was used by the crew as it pumped down the lift station, through which nearly all of the wastewater generated east of Ind. 49 flows on its way to the treatment plant. A serious stormwater infiltration problem, though, has made the lift station susceptible to flooding during heavy rains. “We would fill the Baker tank up, then drain it back into the lift station manhole,” O’Dell said.

The Crocker lift station was also on high alarm on Sunday and crews were monitoring it throughout the day, O’Dell said, but once again there were no reports of backups.

Meanwhile, Chesterton weathered the storm “pretty well,” Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg said. “A few tree limbs down but other than that nothing major to report.”

At 10:30 a.m. today all county roads were open, Porter County Highway Superintendent Al Hoagland said, although that could change with more rain. “Everything is so saturated. If we could get a break and stay dry for a few days. Every tile and every culvert is right up to capacity.”

Phil Griffith, director of the Porter County Emergency Management Agency, did say that Duneland was under a tornado warning on Sunday afternoon, hence the county-wide activation of the tornado siren system.

Griffith said that a rotation in the sky was reported just west of Hebron, another rotation in Hobart and into Wheeler, and a third in the Portage area. Originally the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the southwest portion of the county, including Hebron, but then expanded it to an area east of Kouts and finally as far north as Chesterton, he said.

Posted 3/9/2009