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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Officials with the City of Lisbon confirm that raw sewage was pumped into the Sheyenne River for approximately 12 hours overnight because a pump station had failed.

Officials say the main lift station with two pumps failed on March 18th. That pump station is where all the sewage in town flows to. That had to be bypassed and the sewage was pumped into the river from about 11:40 p.m. to roughly 11 a.m. the next day. The City has been in contact with the North Dakota Department of Health regarding what happened.

Authorities add if this bypass wasn’t used, the sewage would just then back up into everyone’s homes. There’s an alarm system in the lift station that went off just before 10 p.m. Electricians determined that it was not an electrical issue that caused the failure. Officials said because of past floods, they have an idea of how long they can let a situation like this go before having to act.

City officials say luckily it occurred at night so the flow was much lower than if it had occurred during the daylight hours. Authorities say some emergencies are unavoidable and sometimes things just break. It’s unclear at this point if there are any health or environmental concerns because of pumping raw sewage into the river.

Cover photo courtesy of Valley News Live.