Lightning strike damages Lima’s wastewater plant

The Lima Wastewater LIMA — Treatment Plant was rendered inoperable after a lightning strike during a heavy thunderstorm early Saturday, resulting in flooding of the facility and millions of dollars in damage.

According to Utilities Director Michael Caprella, at 4:50 a.m. Saturday, a bolt of lightning struck the main switch gear directing power into the plant, disabling it. While the plant has two diesel generators available for backup power, they were not automatically activated because of damage to the switch gear, leaving the entire facility without power and helpless to prevent ensuing flooding from the heavy rains that morning.

“We were pretty much dead in the water, literally,” Caprella said. “Water kept coming into the plant, since this is a wastewater plant and water flows this way. At no time did we flood the community at all because it made it to this plant, but once it got here, we couldn’t pump it out.”

Temporary generator-powered pumps were put in place after about five hours, allowing the plant to treat the water on site before releasing it to the Ottawa River. However, that was not before several feet of water flooded the facility, as much as 13 feet deep in some areas, destroying numerous electrical components and other pieces of equipment.

Caprella emphasized that this outage only affected the wastewater treatment plant and not the treatment plant responsible for the city’s drinking water.

Throughout the process of developing an action plan for addressing the outage, the city has been in contact with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, keeping them apprised of the situation. According to Ohio EPA northwest media coordinator Dina Pierce, an EPA inspector was on site Tuesday and was pleased with the city’s mitigation efforts.

“The plant staff reacted quickly and got contractors to the site to restore plant operations, which is still ongoing,” she said. “An inspector visited the plant on Tuesday, and the plant is running very well and is discharging treated water.”

Damages were still being assessed, but Caprella estimates the damages could eclipse $3 million. However, according to Lima Finance Director Steve Cleaves, the city is covered by the Ohio Plan, an insurance plan covering several municipalities. While saying that damage appraisals must still be completed, the city would only be responsible for costs “in the tens of thousands, maybe $20,000 or $30,000,” he said.

Caprella said that this will be a “long-term fix,” with pumps still needing to be dried and rebuilt and several areas of the facility, including the administration building, still without power until possibly next week.