Dear Residents, Property Owners and Friends:
I wanted to take a moment to send out this message now that we are one week to the day we started our recovery efforts in response to PTC #8. While I was not prepared to provide a lengthy summary of the Village’s response at yesterday’s Council meeting I did emphasize that we are still in the recovery process under a State of Emergency and will continue to pump water off the island to the ocean, river, and out to Bald Head Creek until further notice and that our key challenges remain some secondary roads still with floodwater, grinder pumps that are still submerged, increased stormwater intake at the Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) and overall, many areas around the island that have residences with standing water and mosquitoes. On the latter, we have Public Works personnel specifically tasked with vector control (i.e., use of oils in ponding areas and spraying).
Stormwater Removal – As mentioned in the September 16, Update #3, percolation of standing floodwater (i.e. surface water) into the subsurface water table (surficial aquifer) is our primary source for mitigating these ongoing issues. Rainfall from events leading up to PTC# 8, including the effects of Tropical Storm Debby in early August, were handled by the percolation process. However, sometime on Sunday, September 15th, or more likely Monday, September 16th, the effects of PTC# 8, with total rainfall accumulation amounts far exceeding early projections of the National Weather Service on Sunday evening and Monday morning (+/- 6 inches), had raised the upper level of the water table to the surface, essentially eliminating percolation as a quick and reliable means to remove stormwater. Given the severity of the impacts, it was quickly decided that we needed to open the emergency ocean outfalls to South Beach and West Beach (Cape Fear River).
By 6:00 p.m. this evening, we will complete 7 days of full operation of our major pumping capabilities with the emergency outfalls in addition to moving water off the island from the lagoons through the bypass lagoon out to Bald Head Creek. As these pumping operations have and will continue to remove substantial stormwater off the island, the Village placed other mobile pumps in areas with major road blockages of our primary roads, moving the floodwater in most cases into the lagoon system. This effort requires a balancing act so as not to further negatively impact low-lying areas already impacted by lagoons exceeding their “full pond” levels (referred to as freeboard). This is why in some areas, it seemed as if the flood levels were not going down, when, in effect, a significant amount of water was being removed from the island by way of the emergency outfalls and bypass lagoon which we have maintained since last Tuesday.
As major roadways are cleared, secondary roads become the next priority. Additional pumps in the Village’s inventory were located on low-lying secondary roads to move stormwater into the lagoon system as the lagoon levels continue to lower.
Once lagoon levels lower to near their normal “full pond” levels (within freeboard), pumps are located such that floodwater can be moved from other low-lying areas affecting grinder pumps, in addition the continued removal of water from the island to the outfalls.
We continue to assess daily progress that is used to plan for pumps to be relocated until all low-lying areas affecting roads and grinder pumps are void of stormwater (reminder – the Village does NOT remove stormwater from private properties).
Grinder Pumps – In my update to Council I also acknowledged that a significant amount of rainfall had given us challenges with the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in that floodwater flowing in the grinder pumps and then to the lift stations ultimately ending up at the WWTP effectively turned our WWTP into a Stormwater Plant. The Village’s WWTP, in simple terms, works like this: wastewater leaves the home and is gravity-fed into a subsurface “septic tank” near the home. When the level of wastewater reaches a certain point, a “grinder” pump activates and moves the wastewater to a “lift station” which then forces it on to the “primary main lift station” and then to the WWTP. The lift station pumps force the wastewater to the WWTP in the middle of the Island where it is processed.
During major flooding events, such as Hurricane Florence and PTC #8, with 40 and 20 inches of accumulated rain, respectively, stormwater seeps into the septic tanks in low-lying areas, causing the grinder pumps to activate, the lift stations to activate, and the WWTP to process far more wastewater than it is designed to handle.
This, along with the lack of electricity, was the reason the WWTP was shut down and the Island inhabitable during Hurricane Florence in 2018.
In PTC #8, the stormwater levels were such that electricity remained on, but seepage into many septic tanks, resulted in the near overcapacity of the WWTP. In lieu of shutting down the WWTP which would have resulted in a mandatory evacuation of the island, the decision was made to isolate and turn off submerged grinder pumps to minimize the cause of the overcapacity issue. As we have been reporting daily, the Village is now turning on grinder pumps if floodwater levels allow (current list HERE).
We learned in Hurricane Florence of a “snorkel” solution, whereby the septic tank is “sealed” to disallow stormwater seepage, and a “snorkel” is installed to allow for venting. Many of these were installed post-Florence, and the Village has identified another wave of homes in need of the snorkel solution. The Village will begin making these modifications once the storm response is complete and the materials can be procured. Property owners will be notified as these modifications take place.
As I know there are many folks new to the island that may not have been here during Hurricane Florence in 2018 and/or this is your first experience of an event like this on BHI. Please forward any questions you have as we will put together a FAQ in response to those we receive. You can e-mail your questions to public.information@villagebhi.org. We will also report on our own post-storm action review which we typically do following an event.
To close, I thank you for your continued patience and ongoing support of the Village and all its employees, especially those essential personnel who have been working on your behalf tirelessly in our recovery efforts. Also, to acknowledge that many of our essential personnel who were here during the Florence recovery, and multiple other storm events previously, are capable and knowledgeable in what they are doing, which is evident by the results thus far. The actions that we have been taking (i.e., “the plan”) are well documented in the Hurricane Florence Task Force Report and I encourage you to review that document as you formulate any specific questions you may have.
Sincerely,
Chris McCall, Village Manager