A southeast Minot neighborhood is investigating whether to take the City of Minot to court over damages related to a June 17 rain storm that flooded residences.
Residents claim the loss of personal items and damage to their homes is from an inadequate sewer system that they say is the city's responsibility to maintain.
"I feel the City of Minot has some fault here in this deal," said neighborhood spokesman Bruce Clark, who lives on 13th Street Southeast. "I am not saying we wouldn't have had some water damage but you should never have had a sewer backup in those houses."
The downpour on June 17 caused the neighborhood east of Corbett Field and south of the zoo to experience both flooding and backup of the sanitary sewer system.
Rusten Roteliuk, city engineer, said backup of sanitary sewers can result if storm water gains entry and overwhelms the system. Entry can happen with major runoff as occurred June 17. It also can occur as rain water is pumped out of their basements into the sanitary sewer, he said.
The city upgraded a lift station serving the sanitary sewer in that area some years ago. The sanitary sewer system required repair in 2005 after a line break caused sewer to back up into homes. The city paid damages to residences at that time.
Some of the residents plan to go door to door in the neighborhood to determine support for a lawsuit aimed at getting compensation for the latest sewer backup and at forcing the city to enlarge the storm sewer system.
"We want the rain water in our neighborhood to go down the drain like it's supposed to, not create a lake," reads a flyer being distributed to residents. "We want to rest assured that the waste water from in our homes doesn't come back up from the toilets and drains filling our basements as it has twice in the last 10 years. ... Shouldn't our taxes be used to correct the problems the City knows of, and has known about for years?"
City officials acknowledge that older sections of town have smaller storm sewer systems, which can lead to water pooling temporarily in areas because drainage is slow. However, Alan Walter, Minot public works director, said he is unfamiliar with the issue raised by the residents.
Frank Wickum, a 13th Street resident, said he had a city employee come to view the drainage problem three years ago. The employee indicated the information would be taken to his supervisor, but he received no further response from the city, he said.
His home was flooded both by water runoff and sewage on June 17.
"We honestly feel that if the sewage system had worked properly and aided in the draining of the water, what was two feet of water could have been maintained to two inches," he said in a letter to the city. "We have received numerous feedback from others in the neighborhood as well as witnessed ourselves over the past few years that this area becomes a disaster when incidents like this take place. I ask that the city not only step in and assist our family in covering the cost of the cleaning, repairs and personal losses my family has incurred but to also implement a plan immediately to repair the existing problem that allows situations like this to occur."
Bob Timm, a resident on 13th Street, filed a claim that the city's insurer, the North Dakota Insurance Reserve Fund, denied because it did not see any city negligence.
Timm said the city's failure to ensure adequate storm and sanitary sewer systems showed gross negligence. He said his basement would have remained dry during the June rain if the sanitary sewer system had not backed up.
"We don't want this to happen again," he said. "I believe the time to take action was a long time ago. Things need to be fixed now to stop this from repeatedly happening as the city has allowed so far."
The city finance office has taken damage claims from residents in northwest and southeast Minot from the June 17 storm. As of Tuesday, the city had received seven claims seeking city compensation for damage to homes and two involving vehicles damaged by manholes after covers were blown off. The city forwards the claim requests to its insurer.
