City of Sturgis: Abbott Nutrition flooding impact is rare
The city of Sturgis has provided details regarding significant rainfall that prompted Abbott Nutrition to pause production, as the facility works to close the gap in a baby formula shortage.
Earlier report: Production at Abbott Nutrition baby formula factory in Sturgis halted by storm
Earlier report: Strong storm causes damage, outages
The June 13 storm dumped more rain than the city’s system can handle immediately, resulting in ponding and slow rainfall dispersion.
Late Wednesday, Abbott said production for its EleCare specialty formula had been halted, but it has enough supply to meet needs until additional formula can be produced. Abbott said it needs to assess damage and resanitize the factory after severe thunderstorms and heavy rain swept through Sturgis late Monday.
Sturgis city officials said Thursday the rain that came with the storm was "significant," resulting in precipitation that pushed parts of the city’s storm sewer system to capacity for a brief period.
The city received communication from representatives of Abbott Nutrition that the facility had flooded during the storm.
"Based on discussions with Abbott and the best information available, this likely was a combination of the city’s storm sewer system being at capacity in this area and unable to receive any additional water from the Abbott site and Abbott’s onsite systems being pushed to capacity," city officials said Thursday. "As a result, storm water on the Abbott site backed up and flooded areas of their plant. This combination of factors is an extremely rare occurrence and all storm water capacity issues were cleared in a matter of hours as the storm decreased and systems were able to catch up."
The city’s storm sewer system consists of several zones, according to city officials. The zones are interconnected to make up the overall system. In most situations when significant rainfall occurs, if the system is overwhelmed in a specific area, it may result in a few inches of ponding or standing water on city streets.
During the most recent storm, the city recorded 0.94 inches of rain in 15 minutes and 1.46 inches of rain in 30 minutes.
"Beyond the amount of rain received, it is the high intensity of an event which can overwhelm the storm sewer system," according to a statement from the city. During the June 13 storm, there were three five-minute intervals when rainfall intensity was more than two inches per hour; identified as the amount of rain that would be received if the event lasted one hour at that intensity. One of these two events was almost 4.5 inches per hour. During that five-minute time frame alone, a half-inch of rainfall was recorded.
Ponding also was observed in other areas throughout the city and a few blocks from Abbott, with the standing water, about four inches deep, draining away within 30 minutes.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: City of Sturgis: Abbott Nutrition flooding impact is rare
