Sewage spill at Sun Lakes stop short of water

COULEE CITY — A power failure at a lift station caused a small sewage spill at Sun Lakes State Park Tuesday, according to Dennis Felton, area manager for Coulee Area State Parks, but the lake water wasn’t affected.

“It was strictly just liquid that came out of it, no solids,” Felton said. “The closest it got to the actual water was 15 feet. Of course, we blocked the area off and the sunshine, within about six hours, dried everything up.”

The spill was the result of a power surge that shut down the motors in the pump, Felton explained. That station takes in sewage from two other stations in the park, and when it stopped pumping, it was overfilled.

“We got to it before the flow got any worse,” he said. “Got our pumps back up and running which then sucked our wet well down to where it normally sits at. It's back in normal operation again right now.”

The whole operation took about 10 minutes, Felton said.