Too much rain, but Robbinsdale officials say Crystal Lake disaster averted
Rain continues to drench the northwest suburbs. After Monday’s rainfall, almost 47 inches of liquid precipitation has fallen in Robbinsdale this year.
Because of all that liquid, the city put in a supplemental pump in late May to drain water out of Crystal Lake. But the extra pump hasn’t been able to keep up with Mother Nature.
“The supplemental pump we have working out at Crystal Lake is working full-time to try and keep the lake level under control,” said Public Works Director Richard McCoy. “But with rain like we get today that just throws us back in our ability to make progress to get that lake level down. The regular pump is also pumping but that finds it very difficult to keep up as well.”
Crystal Lake “Disaster” Averted
However, things could be a lot worse.
According to McCoy, without the supplemental pump, things would have been “disastrous” for the lower-lying areas of Robbinsdale north of Crystal Lake. Earlier in the year there was no additional pump and some residents had water in their basements and ponding in their yards.
All this rain is creating havoc with city projects.
“It would be nice to have a regular rainfall year instead of these that seem to be abnormally high rainfall years,” McCoy said. “We’ve got a number of projects that have been held up because the water table level is just so high we can’t possibly excavate into it and hope to dig a decent trench or anything like that.”
McCoy says the supplemental pumps will remain until freezing temperatures or snow arrive.
