Maintenance Woes: Failed Septic System Forces Cancellation Of Film Festival At Effigy Mounds National Monument

Published Date

December 26, 2017

A failed septic system at Effigy Mounds National Monument forced postponement of the annual Winter Film Festival, though the park remains open for visitors this winter/NPS

Let's put a face on part of the National Park Service's maintenance backlog. At Effigy Mounds National Monument in Iowa, the annual Winter Film Festival had to be cancelled because the park's sewer system can't handle big crowds. And it might not be replaced before summer.

It's easy to say the maintenance backlog is estimated to be somewhere between $11.3 billion and $12 billion to make all the necessary repairs. But it strikes a little closer to home when you read that a sewer system is so old it can't handle crowds and so a park has to discontinue a popular program or close a visitor center, or when you hear that the trans-canyon water pipeline at Grand Canyon National Park needs to be replaced at a cost of about $100 million so folks on the South Rim or at Phantom Ranch or the Indian Garden campground can have water.

At Effigy Mounds, the traditional Winter Film Festival was postponed for a year because of the failing septic system.

“I really hate having to do this, because the Winter Film Festival it is a wonderful multi-generational tradition here,” said Effigy Mounds Superintendent Jim Nepstad. “It brings in extra visitors during the winter months, which are otherwise fairly slow here. But with a failed septic system, we can’t accommodate the extra visitors. We made it through the fall with a line of portable toilets outside, but that isn’t a very desirable solution during the deep winter months.”

The septic system, constructed in 1959, has just enough capacity to handle the sharply reduced staff and the usual number of visitors that stop by during the winter, so the visitor center will remain open to the public during this time, a park release said. No special events will be planned until the new system is constructed in the spring or summer of next year.

“We may not be hosting special events like the Film Festival until we get the system replaced, but I want to emphasize that the park and the visitor center will remain open,” said Superintendent Nepstad. “And we certainly plan on bringing the Winter Film Festival back next year.”

Visitor center hours through the winter are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., seven days a week except for major holidays.

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