NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK) – After last week’s heavy rainstorms, the Nacogdoches Wastewater Treatment Plant said it is back on track with their process of removing excess water.

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During the storms, the plant said an excessive amount of storm water was picked up and to combat the overflow, the facility went into Emergency Bypass Mode.

“If we couldn’t bypass our ponds would eventually overflow,“ said Case Opperman, Director of Public Works for the City of Nacogdoches.

The plant currently handles around nine million gallons per day but due to last week’s heavy storms, around 18 million gallons were in their system.

Opperman said going into emergency mode was critical to ensure safety for everyone.

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“If we don’t bypass and take that load off of our actual treatment process, it can damage our equipment,” Opperman said. “Even worse then that, it can flush some of our bio solids that we use to treat the waste water here out into the environment as well which is a major cleanup effort.”

During Emergency Bypass Mode all of the excess water that cannot be handled gets released into the nearby stream, the wastewater plant said.

“About 95% of that water that gets released untreated is storm water,” Opperman said. “It’s not contaminated water.”

Even after the rain stops the facility is still affected.

“We still are receiving a lot of inflow into the plant for several days after that as the drainage areas continue to flow down,” Opperman said.

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The storm water gets drained until the facility gets to a gallon level that the can be handled.

Opperman said heavy rain on the horizon is always something to keep an eye on.

“We do what we can,” Opperman said. “When we start seeing these levels rise, you’re starting to think about getting into that mode of having to bypass if we have to.”

Due to some equipment being down, the facility is currently operating at 75% strength. Officials said they hope the facility will be back to full strength around October.

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