Rainfall has caused more issues than just flooding

Dec 31, 2018

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LAURINBURG — Like many areas in Southeast North Carolina, Scotland County has seen a historic amount of rainfall that has caused far more than just the visible flooding throughout the area.

Laurinburg City Manager Charles Nichols estimates that there was 75-plus inches of rain in 2018, which is a major increase from 2017’s 39 inches. The amount of rainfall has forced the storm drains to work overtime and has caused some issues for some of the wastewater lift stations.

One of the biggest issues that the city has seen has been with the groundwater from the rain entering the sewer system.

The sewer system is a gravity fed system that goes to a pump and is then sent to the wastewater treatment plant. When the groundwater level is above the sewer lines it can enter the lines thus causing the lift stations to handle more water than normal.

“It’s called I&I, which stands for inflow and infiltration,” Nichols said. “The sewer lines aren’t meant to be pressurized and, with the groundwater, it makes it a lot harder for the stations to pump and keep up with it when we have all this water.”

Due to the all the rain getting into the lines there have been some stations that have overflown due to the amount of water and sewer that has come in. The lines are monitored and regulated with everything reported to the state but according to Nichols, the system has been hit hard with the record amount of rainfall.

Nichols added that crews have been out cleaning ditches and storm drains of debris but with so much rainfall keeping them clean isn’t the biggest issue.

“Our stormwater system is a combination of city-owned drains, state-owned drains, and privately owned drains,” Nichols said. “You can drive all through Southeast Carolina and it’s all the same. The water is collecting in fields and in other low lying areas, it’s not just an issue with the drains it’s just that there’s been so much rain the water has nowhere to go.”

The rain isn’t done with the area yet either, with rainfall predicted to continue hitting on and off the rest of the week, ringing in 2019 a start on another wet year.