Work continues to fix sewage leak on Missouri River

It could be days before sewage stops flowing into the Missouri River from a pipe that stretches under the river from South Sioux City, Nebraska to Sioux City, Iowa. Lance Headquist, the city administrator for South Sioux City, says they know the pipe is leaking, they just don’t know why.He says they need to find out if there’s a hole in the stainless steel pipe, or if the pipe sections have pulled apart. Headquist says once they figure out what happened, then they can try and fix it.If the pipe has a hole, they could put a rubber liner in the pipe to shut off the flow of sewage. If that’s not the case, it’ll take more work.If the pipe is separated, then they’ll likely have to put in a new pipe — at a cost of at least one-and-a-half million dollars to replace the pipe. They’ll be examining the situation the next several days. The leak is oozing an estimated one-and-a-half million gallons of sewage into the Missouri River every day. Kevin McManus is spokesman for the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality. He says the flow rate of the Missouri River is so large, the leak is relatively small by comparison that it shouldn’t cause environmental damage.McManus says the city is cooperating and working as quickly as it can to find and repair the break, which is buried in mud under the icy river.