Face of Nation : As one truck leaves a sewage station in Paradise, another comes in right behind it and attaches hoses to its tank. Another truck comes in behind that one and parks, waiting for its turn.
It’s a major operation on the corner of St. Thomas Line and Topsail Road with at least eight trucks coming and going 24 hours a day since last Monday, when a vital piece of the busiest sewage station in Paradise failed.
“The volume at this lift station is the largest in town,” reads a press release issued Monday, seven days after the issue began. There is still no word on how much the process is costing the town’s taxpayers.
In order to keep toilets flushing normally, Paradise had to hire pumper trucks to empty out the waste that’s in the ground and move it down the line, to a point where gravity can take it where it needs to go.
The trucks are unable to empty the lift station enough for repair work to be done on the pipes underneath, meaning the town is no further ahead on fixing the problem than it was a week ago. In a release issued Tuesday, the town said a piece of equipment was being shipped in that will help the process.
The lift station uses two pumps, with a third pump as a backup. The statement said there is a problem with the pipes beneath the pumps. Until Tuesday, traffic was being diverted around the area. Those obstructions are no longer in place.
