Sanitation pump defect temporarily closes Lake Storey Beach

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The City of Galesburg has temporarily closed Lake Storey Beach due to a backed up sanitary district pump.
The pump malfunctioned yesterday and water flowed across the street.

As a precautionary measure they contacted Galesburg Parks and Recreation director Tony Oligney-Estill who closed the lake to swimming for the time being.

He tells WGIL before they let anyone else swim at Lake Storey they want to be positive that it’s not contaminated.

“The sanitary district is actually testing the water to make sure it’s safe for people to swim in it, ” Oligney-Estill says. “But until we’re 100 percent positive we don’t want to expose anyone to possibly contaminated water.”

Test results are expected back later today. The pump is for waste water but rain waters can get in as well.

With recent heavy amounts of rainfall Oligney-Estill believes the pump became overwhelmed. The sanitary district is it’s own unit of government whose sewers are separate from the city’s.

Oligney-Estill says the sanitary district does have money budgeted to replace the pump.

He says this happened a few years ago, but it should be a long time before this problem rears it head again once the pump is replaced this year.

“This should be the last time we have to deal with it, I hope,” he says.

Regardless of test results, the lake will be closed all of Wednesday, but if tests show the water is safe Oligney-Estill will reopen the lake tomorrow.

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