HANNIBAL, MO. -- There are about 33 hundred manhole covers in the city of Hannibal.

Those covers give access to the city sewer system, but there's a problem.

There are about 500 manhole covers that can't be found.

Sound odd?

Read on, it all makes sense.

The city is in the process of building a new computer based mapping system of the sewer lines for future upgrades. Last winter, a company started surveying the manholes around town for mapping purposes. That process is almost done, but the company can't find 500 manhole covers. That's probably not too big a deal, but now the Department of Natural Resources, working on behalf of the EPA says the Board of Public Works *has* to inspect every manhole in the city and report back. Each hole has to be checked at least once every five years.

Robert Stevenson says, "I'm not convinced we have to find everyone. The directive we have from the DNR says we have to find everyone, but I think there's some flexibility for that for practical considerations."

So where are all the manholes?

There's a good possibility many of them could be here off South Main Street. The Federal Government bought out this neighborhood after the flood of 1993, so the sewer lines became abandoned, and the city has no use for them.

Some of the manholes are in wooded areas because the sewer lines aren't all in residential parts of the city. Some are in private yards because sub division development.  But most of them have likely been paved over.

Stevenson says, "Getting them fixed could be a challenge depending on what we find. Each one has a cost associated. Maybe as much as a thousand dollars a piece. We have budget problems funding that. When we dig them up, we create traffic problems and all of these will have to be planned out."

Crews have been out trying to find manholes that have been paved over for the last ten days or so with metal detectors. The other problem is no one knows when the manhole covers were paved over. Some of them could have been done years ago, maybe even a decade or more. Robert Stevenson, the City Engineer, and the City Manager are all relatively new to the job. Even the city council has had some turnover in recent past, so figuring out where these manholes are could prove difficult. Stevenson says that's not important, but what is is finding them and getting the plan in place to fix them. .

The DNR is not expected to impose fines or anything.

Robert Stevenson says as long as the city shows suitable progress, the DNR should be satisfied.

Stevenson also says the sewer system works as good as it ever has.

One of the priorities for finding the manholes is in the downtown area, because the Board of Public Works would like to do some upgrades to the sewer system in the area in the future.