ST. PAUL - The Town of St. Paul is asking residents to avoid all non-essential water use.
According to a social media post from the municipality at 4 p.m. on Sunday (June 7), "Water levels are reaching critical levels at the Waste Treatment Plant."
"Although the Town is able to keep up with the water levels for the moment, this is an evolving situation," noted the statement.
Later on Sunday evening, CAO Kim Heyman said the town's Director of Utilities and Public Works Directors, along with their crews, had been working all afternoon.
"When the sewer system gets overwhelmed there can be sewer backup, especially in low lying areas or in houses that don’t have a backup valve," said Heyman.
"When it rains this hard, it over flows our sewer system. At times of unusually high rain, the capacity of system is tested and it was at capacity earlier this afternoon," she explained.
Town of St. Paul crews responded to about half a dozen calls of sewer back ups, and were still on the job at 7 p.m. Heyman said she spoke with Director of Utilities Bert Pruneau Sunday evening and "they are finally starting to get a bit of an edge on the flows."
"We aren’t out of the woods yet, but there has been a slight drop in the levels," said Heyman, adding another downpour could put levels back up, but she was hopeful the rain would slow down heading into the evening.
The area has experienced a near constant rainfall for about two days now, with some residents saying their rain gauges are showing well over two inches of rain since Saturday morning. The rain is expected to taper off this evening, according to a rainfall warning issued by Environment Canada.
*This story was updated at 7:15 p.m. on June 7 to reflect the CAO's comments
