Pumping Station Flooding Stemmed From Broken Pipe

Now that the basement at the is dry the source of the massive flooding on Sunday is clear.

“A pipe between two of the pumps in the basement is where the breach occurred,” Town Administrator Andrew Maylor said.

The large cast-iron pipe has a slice running halfway around it, he said.

The pipe’s function is to carry wastewater from one pump to the other pump, he said.

What is unclear is what caused the pipe to rupture, he said.

Maylor said the town will likely bring in an independent engineer to evaluate the system.

He projects that the pumping station will be back to normal operations  in a couple weeks.

In the meantime the town sewer system is relying on a by-pass to route wastewater from Swampscott to the Lynn treatment plant.

The town administrator does not expect homes and businesses will experience any interruption to their service.

Town officials have been in communication with the state Department of Environmental Services, giving them updates on the flooding, Maylor said.

A DEP representative has visited the plant, as well.

Ultimately, the department will write a report on the incident, he said.

The town’s Department of Public Works and its contractor Veolia Environmental Services have been overseeing the cleanup and remediation, Maylor said.

On Tuesday the town installed the by-pass around the flooded pumping station, routing wastewater from homes and businesses to the Lynn Treatment plant.

The by-pass gave crews a chance to pump out the flooded basement.

Eighteen feet of wastewater filled not only the basement but also half the floor above it.

The station system failed Sunday morning but service at homes continued.

DPW Director Gino Cresta arranged to have trucks ferry wastewater — about 2 million gallons a day — off-site, to the Lynn treatment plant, and not shut down residential service.

Cresta’s strategy has worked well, Maylor said.

The town had just about completed a $300,000 upgrade to the pumping mechanism at the station.

The town contracted with Weston and Sampson, an engineering consulting firm, for the upgrade.

The town administrator said earlier that this upgrade was part of a regular maintenance program.

“This is not a function of an aged infrastructure,” he said.