The Inter-Mountain photo by Edgar Kelley City of Elkins employees work to repair a sewer line on Randolph Avenue last week, after foam that was sprayed for road stabilization mixed with gravel to damage about 450 feet of the line.

ELKINS — Elkins officials have announced the cause of the issue that led to a multiple-day effort to fix a sewer line on Randolph Avenue.

“You guys have probably experienced a little bit of an inconvenience on Randolph Avenue,” the city’s Chief Wastewater Operator Whitney Hymes told Elkins City Council during their most recent meeting. “It’s over. We got it cleared.

“What happened was, about three years ago, we had some issues with foam being ejected for road stabilization. It got into our sewer line.

“This is what we pulled out,” Hymes said, holding up a large plastic baggie containing a solid chunk of material. “This is just a small chunk of it. Just hard styrofoam, it mixed with gravel and turned into concrete. It blocked a 12-inch line all the way, about 450 feet across that section.

“We went to the storm drain, had some issues with some taps not draining properly, backing up in the basements. But today, we’ve got it all cleaned. It’s completely out,” Hymes said.

“We camera-ed it four times just to make sure, up by Lynn’s Service Station and on down, we have no issue now. So, thank goodness.”

Hymes said her staff received great cooperation from other city employees.

“I want to thank the street department,” she said. “With his short staff, he sent two employees to come and help me, do traffic control, and with their help it turned out very successful.”

City Clerk Sutton Stokes added, “That’s a big deal. This sewer line got filled with this eventually concrete-like substance. It created huge problems for some of the residences along there, and so it must be a huge relief to get that finally taken care of. It required inter-agency negotiations and cooperation and is definitely a big win.”

Also during the meeting, Elkins Fire Chief Steve Himes updated council on his department’s activities.

“Year-to-date call volume as of this afternoon, 352 calls. That’s about 5% up from last year,” he said.

“Typically, I try to pull some other statistics about halfway through the year. So far this year, our property saved statistics are showing about 84 percent of all pre-incident values, they are falling under property saved. Six percent of the total call volume is about our mutual aid calls, where we’re going to assist other fire departments. So, guys are staying busy.

“We’re also going to be at 22nd Century Technologies providing fire extinguisher, first aid and CPR training to the staff there,” Himes noted.

“We finished up pump tests. All vehicles have received their annual service. So, we always try to cross that box early in the year. The only thing we’ll have left to do will be the certification of the aerial, which will come in November.”