Home Town Hero Saves Town from Crappy Day

Every town usually has one or two residents that think if not for them; the town would cease to exist. Most of the times these people are known as the unofficial "Mayor" - I am sure you can come up with one name of the super-resident that lives in your town.

Next time they start bellowing about their town saving deed's, tell them to top this.... after town residents were facing raw sewage backing up in thier homes from a broken feeder line to the waste-water treatment plant (wwtp) - a volunteer from the Grand Island NE Dive & Rescue Team saved the day. Against his wife's wishes, this guy faced death to help others....

From KHAS TV --

A Grand Island man dives into raw sewage to prevent disaster, and now others are showing their gratitude. Volunteer diver Dave Lemburg spent 20 minutes submerged in raw sewage to shut off a broken valve at the city's wastewater treatment plant.

"I did this out of the kindness of my heart, not to win any awards. I am just another Grand Islander like everyone else," said Lemburg. What Dave did was dive... into sewage. 15 feet of it.

The sewage current was strong, so Dave strapped 40 pounds of lead onto his SCUBA gear and was lowered down on a rope. "Luckily the rope was just at the right length, the valve right in front of me," said Lemburg. Now about three feet below the surface, Dave found the valve by feel.

He would spend the next 15 minutes trying to close the valve with a wrench. Slowly, the sewage began to go down.

"You have to mentally block all of the nasty stuff out and look at the situation at hand," Lemburg said. "I thought of all those people's basements and Christmas coming up, and I thought 'this would not be good'."

Facing the onslaught of raw sewage, needles, all sorts of debris from the gushing force inside the pipe, cannot be even remotely compared to diving in a river or lake looking for a body.

Working in the business of infrastructure and heavy highway construction, I have first hand knowledge of the dangers this man ignored by entering this feeder line. Most likely this "feeder" line was an interceptor sewer running to the wwtp. In layman terms- this was the big pipe that collects sewage from all the little pipes and "feeds" the treatment plant.

I have worked on projects with companies that specialized in this line of work - confined, live sewer entry - these guys are a special breed. One could call them the "Super Heroes of the Sewer's." What this guy did was more incredible than some may think.

Now considered the town hero, and rightfully so, Lemburg is receiving cards of thanks for saving the town.

So the next time your town blow hard spouts off about being "Joe All-City" because he wears a hat with the city logo, tell them to call a real town saving hero - Dave Lemburg.