Prevention and Communication I think are very important when dealing with a crisis. If you are aware that a potential crisis could happen before it does…Why would you not do all you can to prevent it? That’s the question I feel a lot of Valley City citizens may be asking not only each other but other community decision makers when it comes to the issue of the sewer systems. Then communicating these preventative measures and the seriousness that these measures carry is just as important as well.
The night before the sewer system broke, I was working at one of my jobs which is at a restaurant in town and was surprised to see that no sewer precautions were being taken. Now this was about the third day that the community was asked to conserve water as much as possible so they wouldn’t be putting all that water down the drains. They were asked not to take their ‘beauty’ showers, run your dishwashers, or washing machines. Yet we were doing dishes as normal and all other activities at work the same. I asked some fellow workers wondering why we weren’t doing things a bit different and they said there was no need yet. I was dumbfounded and wondered had they not heard the last couple of days and what the community officials were saying in regards to the sewer system and that it was running to the max.
To make this already known information of trying to reduce the amount of sewer in the drain of utmost importance, there could have been phone calls or people walking to each business stating it is mandatory to conserve, like they did with the residents door to door. Another good way to communicate this directly to the workers would to have had an employee meeting before each shift telling them to conserve as much as possible with what they were putting down the drain.
I don’t think that the sewer system failure could have been avoided completely due to the amount of river water flowing into the system but maybe the severity could have been lowered and the system wouldn’t have to be down for so long. Causing the business’s to be closed completely and residents forced to either evacuate or use porta-potties.
The communication after the crisis of the sewer system, however, was better. It almost takes something bad to happen for people to realize that what was going on was really important. The city got 1,000 porta-potties delivered to residents’ and businesses and the word on the radio of absolutely no water usage instead of just saying a need to cut down. Maybe the word ‘reduce’ wasn’t a strong enough word for residents to feel the need to cut back. We sure no know though :)
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Good post! Maybe if businesses and people would've taken better precautionary measures and actually conserved water, the sewer wouldn't have collapsed. I don't know much about sewer systems, so I don't really know about that. I know a few people who are so selfish that they used tons of water during the time we were told to use none. People like this are the reason that "reduce" wasn't a strong enough word in the first place. People can use paper plates and do their laundry outside of town. There was washers set up at a house out by the town of Peak.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing is that I don't think people know that just because the evacuation has been lifted doesn't mean we still shouldn't conserve water.
I agree the communication was bad. Telling people to conserve water doesn't quite have the same effect as "use the least amount of water possible." It is crazy how it happened because, before the sewer broke, I didn't even hear anything telling me to conserve water. They would want to try to get a hold of everyone (especially the big businesses in town) to stop using water before it happened. The city didn't do the best job of preventing this.
ReplyDeleteGood point, i am surprised that the businesses were not trying to cut back on water usage. Now since people and businesses did not cut back they had to be closed for a while and are losing money every day they are not open. If they could redo this event i am sure they might have tried to conserve water better, instead of being shut down all together. The city should have done a better job i think to prevent this by telling people no water was to be used sooner. I think in the future they will have a better crisis plan.
ReplyDeleteMy personal feeling is that we cant blame eveything on officials regarding this matter. People need to use their own common sense as well during situations like this. LOTS OF RIVER WATER= FULL DRAINS & SEWERS.... thats just how it is. Some people are inconsiderate and heaven forbid that they cut back on filling the tub FULL when they bathe, or washing a LARGE load of laundry. Althought there could of been maybe a little more clear communication to the people it really comes down to people just using their heads a little bit. GOOD POST!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Zach that the city should have said something else other than just to “conserve water”. When people here this they will think that most of the other people are conserving water and that they can still use however much water they want to shower, do dishes, and laundry. A couple of days before the sewer did break I did see on the bottom of the TV to conserve water but not everybody watches the news channels so some people didn’t get that message so they could have done something else to get the word across.
ReplyDeleteThis issue really caught my interest too. I live in Jamestown, ND and we are having the same trouble Valley City was having. THey issued a warning to cut back on water too, but I guarentee that most people don't even know about it. I heard it only once on the radio! People need to realize how hard it is for some companies to conserve water. John Deere for example uses thousands upon thousands of gallons a day for washing and prepping equipment. They had to have all their water pumped into trucks and hauled out after they opened again.
ReplyDeleteyes the city was not doing the great job at letting the people of the city know how important it was to slow the intake of water/waste into the sewer system. they should have been pounding the notice into the citizens of Valley city and they should have let them know what would happen if the water usage remained the same. the city could have done a much better job of informing the city.
ReplyDeleteThings were kind of "out of sight, out of mind" for some of the residents, I think, and took the water system for granted. If you tell a student to do their homework because it is good for them, they probably won't do it, but if you tell that same student that they have to do the homework or they will fail there is a greater sense of importance. Yes, the communication of how critical of condition the infrastructure was in wasn't there, but I don't think some of the town headed the voluntary warnings.
ReplyDeleteThis is a very good point that you have brought up. This could be a fault on both sides of the issue, the city could have done a better job of announcing this with the businesses, but the businesses should have heard it any way. I know that the warning was spread out fairly well because I heard about when it was happening and I was 200 and some odd miles away in Bottineau and there were people talking about it here.
ReplyDeleteWhen they said limit the water usage to minimal I quit taking showers and everything else I only washed my hands once everyday, but still most of the people I know were still using water the same. If everyone could've done their part we could've at least not stressed out the sewer system for being out of service for 3 weeks to atleast 1. Except some people are stupid and don't listen and things get worse. Even when the sewer system was backed up I bet 15% of the people left in town used water. I went to Detroit Lakes and shat like real person it was great!
ReplyDeleteThere should have more precautions as you stated. If the residents were told to keep all their waste water to start with then maybe things would not have been so bad. Not long ago I came down get my stuff from the dorms. My dad, a friend and I ate at Kenny’s restaurant and they were using plastic forks, plates and cups. If businesses were required to do that from the start then maybe the sewer would not have burst, but it still might have too.
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