Decorah's wastewater Treatment Plant still pumping a lot of water

Wastewater Treatment Plant employees had to use canoes to get to work during the flooding

Count Decorah Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent Mike O'Hara as being among the people who are glancing nervously at the skies again this week.

O'Hara told city officials Tuesday night that the wastewater treatment plant is still pumping a lot of water two weeks after the flooding that surrounded the WWTP.

Normally the plant pumps under 1.5 million gallons of water a day.  During the flood, all five pumps at the plant were running at 100 percent capacity, giving a total output of 7 million gallons.

Even though the flooding has ended, O'Hara says the groundwater is high and the soil is damp, so the wastewater treatment plant is handling 3 million gallons a day.

That figure would increase if heavy rains come again, says O'Hara, because the soil is so wet it wouldn't hold much additional water.