Residents near Vermillion River concerned about erosion, sewage

VERMILLION, SD (Dakota News Now) – Rising waters have wreaked havoc in southeastern South Dakota and Vermillion residents are concerned near the Vermillion River.

Normally, a small river that flows into the Missouri River has grown into a dangerous river whose banks continue to widen. Large chunks of soft soil were eroded, slowly moving closer to residences.

“It lasted four days, pieces of wood were falling one after another and the river was getting closer and closer to your house. It was scary,” said Robert Cook, who lives near the river.

Water levels on the Vermillion River rose rapidly and the current reached speeds of nearly thirty miles per hour, easily eroding banks that do not normally see much current. Vast areas of land fell to the river's wrath.

“We lost our entire bank. We lost acres all along the river and we are one of the smallest places around here in terms of some of the farmland that was lost in all of this,” Cook said.

The last of the city's three backed-up pipes was lost Thursday morning, sending sewage into the river. Residents said it could be smelled days ago.

“Right from the beginning, as soon as the river started rising, you could smell the sewage,” Cook said. “We didn’t even want to stand there, it was that strong.”

On Wednesday night, the Clay County Commission held an emergency meeting. Officials advised a voluntary evacuation. Residents feel that communication and assistance have been disappointing.

“You're fighting the river at the same time and then you're trying to get help and it seemed like help was really hard to come by,” Cook said.

State Sen. Sydney Davis said she is working to maintain communication with state and county emergency services and voice her constituents' concerns.

“My role is simply to raise the voices of these residents and bring their concerns to the people who I hope can help preserve their well-being and safety.” There are concerns about private property here and the ability to intervene in that area and some of the jurisdictions that come with that. The county’s resources for preventative measures are somewhat limited,” Davis said.

Cook and Davis hope that the concerns raised can not only impact the current response, but also future emergency responses.

“With every weather event and every emergency, especially after this one, it's important that we take a minute to look back and see what we can learn from that event and see what changes we can make or what kind of investments we can do. our infrastructure to better support our citizens,” Davis explained.

Local residents have banded together to try to slow the erosion by dumping earth and concrete along the river's edge.

“We started in a small area to see if when we threw it in, it would disappear. You didn't know if the stuff you put in would float or if it would stick. We found out it would hold, so we started putting in as much as we could,” Cook said.

The river has crested at just over ten meters, but despite the devastation, residents hope the worst is behind them as the river recedes and help may be on the way.

“Thank God for the good neighbors and friends that came out and helped us because it was a community effort to get everything together,” Cook said. “I really feel like if we hadn’t done what we did, we would have lost our home. See what we can do working with the county and the state to try to figure something out so this doesn’t happen again, especially now that it’s eroded. We need to do something so people aren’t isolated. There are still people moving and still not trusting the whole situation. I’ve been here for four days straight looking at this river. I’m not going anywhere. It’s getting lower, I know that now, so it’s going to get better.”

“It’s going to be really vital and important to continue to monitor the situation, to monitor the situation. Our county emergency manager, his team and our local law enforcement are monitoring all of this and responding to what they feel is best,” Davis said. “I don’t think we’re out of the woods because of more erosion. We know there’s more water coming from the north.”

Area residents and local authorities are asking to limit traffic in these areas so that only necessary people can intervene. The City of Vermillion continues to ask the public to reduce wastewater flows as much as possible during the force main outage. To report damage, follow this link.

Copyright 2024 Dakota News Now. All rights reserved.