The flooding happened on the older side of the jail, Streck said, which was built in 1964. Along with the housing units, the wastewater also affected computer rooms and electrical systems. Streck said an outside contractor had to come in and remove the clog.
“At this point we feel that the clog has been removed,” Streck said.
Maintenance has “been working nonstop,” Streck said, to resolve the issue. They thought the plumbing line was unclogged several different times before the outside contractor was called in.
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The flooding started around 6:30 p.m. Monday and was mostly resolved Tuesday morning.
Everything but one housing unit is cleaned and operational. Wastewater was still dissipating off that area, Streck said.
During the flooding, inmates were moved to attorney rooms, classrooms and other open areas.
Public Health was called to assess the areas that flooded. The agency deemed all the sanitized areas safe to inhabit again.
Streck said he wanted the families of inmates affected to know that he and his staff treated the situation as an emergency.
“We understand the concerns from family members,” Streck said.
Because the county jail is a secure facility, everything had to be locked down and certain procedures had to be followed before inmates could be safely moved from the areas with wastewater in them, Streck said.
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“Some of that stuff does take time,” Streck said. “But as soon as we could get inmates to other housing locations, my staff did a phenomenal job getting them to those other locations.”
The sheriff also said that the master plan being developed for improving the jail will likely address issues like this.
Montgomery County hired HDR, a consulting company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, to develop the plan. The move to make a master plan comes after a community assessment suggested changes, including the possibility of building a new jail.
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