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TAMA — It took five hours and the hard work of some 80 volunteers, but Tama officials believe a sandbagging effort may have prevented a breach in a portion of the dike guarding the city from the flooding Iowa River.

John Meyer, Veolia contract manager for the Tama water and wastewater system, said Tuesday morning it was feared water discovered Monday bubbling from the ground in the area between the dike and the lagoon would escalate resulting in an unstable ground situation.

With water pressure building underneath from either the river or the lagoon, the dike running parallel to the area could have been undermined.

But placement of 8,000 sandbags along the 60 foot-long stretch is expected to stabilize the area, he said.

Stuart Eisentrager, Tama street superintendent, said help came quickly Monday afternoon when requested including from Tama firefighters who were joined by members of Toledo, Montour and Chelsea fire departments, Tama ambulance crew, Tama city and Veolia Water employees, a group of students from the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo and local citizens in the sandbagging effort.

Also credited was Tama County, City of Toledo and Iowa Department of Transportation employees for helping. The DOT provided a total of 500 sandbags which had already been filled and the City of Montour added 300 more filled bags.

The lagoon affected is termed a “wet weather” lagoon, Meyer said. Some runoff from sanitary sewers is diverted to it when a lot of rain falls. Meyer said the treatment plant itself has been handing up to two million gallons of water daily.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which built the dike system in Tama after the flood of 1993, will have to inspect the area to determine if any problems have been caused, officials said.

Two Corps members were in Tama last week to inspect the dike prior to the Monday discovery, city officials said.

Despite the widespread flooding in Tama County and Iowa, the dike has kept most of Tama dry. Prior to its construction, flooding of the city’s south side business and residential area was not uncommon.

 

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