Waste Water Spills onto Cedar Falls Trail; 3rd Spill This Month After 50,000 Gallons Spilled Monday

A sewer line break Tuesday has sent waste water across a Cedar Falls bike trail for the third time this month.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said people and pets should avoid the trail area, from Park Drive (Pfeiffer Park) to Grand Avenue through Thursday afternoon while trail repairs and cleanup are completed. 

The city estimates between 1,000 to 2,000 gallons of waste water were released when the force main at the Park Drive lift station broke.

A different break on Monday in a Park Drive force main discharged an estimated 50,000 gallons of waste water. The city has repaired the line, stopped the discharge and applied lime to the area.

It is unknown how much waste water may have reached the Cedar River, the DNR said.

In addition, on April 16, a waste water bypass occurred at the city of Cedar Falls early this morning due to an electrical problem. In that incident, the DNR said after pumps failed, several thousand gallons of untreated waste water backed up in the downtown treatment plant and overflowed onto ground near the plant, reaching a public bike path and a storm water detention pond.

Follow @CedarFallsPatch on Twitter, on Facebook and through our newsletter for future news updates.