City Says Ruptured Sewer Line Poses 'No Threat to Lake Minnetonka'

The says the waters of Lake Minnetonka were at no time threatened by a ruptured sewer line that has been leaking raw waste since Monday.

The leak is located on Bushaway Road, about a quarter-mile south of Lake Street and within 100 yards of Grays Bay.

“It’s a broken force main, and we’ve valved it down,” said Jim Eibensteiner, Wayzata’s Street Superintendent. “It’s no different than if you had a leak underground that nobody knew about. We knew about this and we’re fixing it.”

City officials said they have not detected any measurable level of ground pollution and the water table is in no danger.

It’s unclear whether the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency or the Department of Natural Resources were notified of the rupture. Neither state agency was at the site of the leak late Wednesday morning.

“The valve was leaking bad, and the pumps were running twice as hard as they had to,” said a city employee working on the leak. “The valve wasn’t holding, so it would go back in and the other pump would pump it out. Once we discovered it, we closed the valve. There are two pumps in there. Now we just have one pump. It (the sewage) was just going in a circle.”

Eibensteiner said the delay in fixing the leak was due to prepatory arrangements such as establishing a detour route.

The emergency repairs left little time for the city to warn residents and motorists that Bushaway Road would be closed to traffic for most of Wednesday. A message appearing on the city’s website on Tuesday simply read that Bushaway Road would be closed on Sept. 14 to “repair a small leak in a sewer force main.”

Traffic was being detoured more than six miles around the construction site. Motorists headed south from Wayzata toward Grays Bay were first directed east on County Road 16 and then back west on Minnetonka Boulevard.

Several other projects are taking place while Bushaway Road is closed to traffic. Center Point Energy is making minor upgrades to gas lines near the intersection of Lake Street and Bushaway Road, and new lights are being installed on the Grays Bay Bridge. Both projects are expected to be completed by Wednesday evening. Eibensteiner said he expected Bushaway Road to reopen sometime Wednesday afternoon.

“As soon as we get this fixed and they get their work done, we’ll open the road,” he said. “I’m thinking about 4 p.m.”