BREAKING: Emergency Sewer Pumping Underway In Minnesota Cities Due To Spring Melt

I was driving up Central Entrance, near Target in Duluth when I noticed how high Miller Creek was. If you remember the 2012 flood, that area really got hit. There have been a lot of flooding concerns this year with the fast melting of mountains of snow. Some cities' sewer systems are backing up, leading to some emergency work.

I noticed a Jeff Foster truck on the side of the road along with what appeared to be a utility vehicle. It was over by Target. I could see that they had lines running down to a manhole station.

I followed Miller Creek to the Miller Hill Mall where I noticed another one of the utility vehicles. He had an area of the parking lot blocked off with an open manhole.

I asked him what they were doing and he explained that they are doing emergency pumping of sewers and relocating the sewage to areas that can handle it.  He said places like Pike Lake were having sewers filling up. North Shore towns also have been having problems with groundwater finding its way into the sewers.

Just yesterday, the City of Proctor asked its residents to severely limit water usage as the sewer system is overrun by groundwater.

The guy from People Service, the wastewater company, told me they had just filled up the sewer near Target. Now trucks were going to come and dump sewage from other areas into the septic system at the mall.

WLSSD posted an update that they have had the highest flow of water in history for the sewer system in Duluth.

With more snow melting and rain on the way this weekend, it could even get worse. Hopefully, emergency management will be enough to save people's basements.