TEMPLE, Texas — The City of Temple has shared its plans to address reoccurring sewage overflow issues.
The City has had six overflows between January and May that have reached over 100,000 gallons, according to a City spokesperson. This reportedly happens when there is heavy rainfall in the area.
"Our sewer lines have experienced increased demand and some of our sewer lines are older, so with that demand, there's a lot more that comes along with that," said Megan Price, the City's spokesperson. "The filtration of water is an ongoing issue, but we are actively addressing it."
Price said it's been a reoccurring issue the City has known about for several years, and more recently, the Northwood Road sewer lines have been struggling to keep up.
"That particular line is one of the longer lines and it's also one of the older lines in our sewer system," Price said. "Essentially what has happened in certain parts of the line, there have been holes that have formed and so we get this influx of rain and so when that influx of rain falls, it sort of overflows these holes which causes the storm water to flow out of the sewage system."
The City of Temple has a project underway now that addresses the issue near Northwood Road. Price said it's called the Bird Creek Trunk Sewer project and it will provide an increased capacity within the City’s wastewater collection system. It's estimated to reach completion in December of 2024.
"We are actively addressing it with things like sewer line assessment, service line inspection, pipe rehabilitation and some different sewer projects that we're actively working on," Price added. "We totally understand the frustration that comes with it. We want to make sure that our sewage system is effective and that we can sort of be proactive with future overflows."
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