The Murray County board of commissioners will meet this morning to consider a resolution declaring a state of emergency due to flooding.

Flooding has caused closed roads in several areas south of Slayton and west of Lake Wilson, according to Jim Koch, the county’s emergency management Services director.

While it hasn’t declared a state of emergency, the city of Marshall has been dealing with temporary road closures due to flooding, as well as extremely high flow levels at the city wastewater plant.

“Since Saturday evening, we’ve received just about seven inches of rain,” on top of already wet soil, said Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes in a message posted on the city of Marshall’s Facebook page Thursday morning.

Heavy rains Wednesday night and Thursday morning led to ponding around the intersection of Lyon County Road 33 and North Seventh Street, and at the intersection of Lyon County Road 7 and Minnesota Highway 19 near the Marshall airport. Both areas were temporarily closed to traffic.

The Redwood River and diversion channel are also flowing high in Marshall.

“We are above flood stage, but we’re well within the containment and protection area. We’re approaching 16 feet. We expect that to be the crest, and that will continue at that level for several days,” Byrnes said.

For Marshall, “The biggest issue really is the flow that’s coming into the wastewater treatment plant,” Byrnes said.

The wastewater plant is receiving about 4.5 times its normal flow, or about 14 million gallons of water. Some of the excess flow is coming from improperly connected sump pumps, he said. Marshall residents are urged not to let their sumps drain into the sanitary sewer system.