Time To Fix Those Aging Pipes ...
An agenda item at today’s Tacoma City Council Study Session was much more exciting than we had originally expected. Under the heading of “Private Property Inflow & Infiltration Removal Program” is a topic that I think may interest many of you …
The Study Session heard today about a problem that we don’t think about all that often. Tacoma, like many cities, is an aging city and our City’s aging pipes are allowing surface water and ground water to enter our sewer system. This causes overflow conditions that result in impacts to the environment, public health, and overall system capacity.
The City’s wastewater collection system consists of 700 miles of private side sewers and 700 miles of public sewer mains. The City has had a program in place to rehabilitate the public sewer mains. But, there’s still a problem – 75% of the excess water is coming from private property. Picture the sewer line from your home with cracks, roots, holes … or it has simply disappeared. A stakeholder group was formed and over the last two years has crafted a mulit-faceted program to fix this problem. Under the proposed program:
- Side sewer inspection would be required at a property’s time of sale. Subsequent repairs would need to be negotiated between the buyer and the seller and an inspection report would be filed with the City.
- Side sewer inspection would be required when a building permit for a major remodel valued at 60% or more of the existing building or with an increase in building footprint.
- The City can take a “Basin Approach” through which it would coordinate the inspection of approximately 750 private properties per year and city funds would cover repairs.
- Private property owners would be given the opportunity to pay for side sewer replacement at the time of street or utility projects adjacent to their property. There would be no permit fees, pavement restoration costs, or inspection fees.
The long term benefits of the program would be a longer life and increased capacity of our City’s existing treatment plants, reduced property claims resulting from sewer overflows, a reduction in potential regulatory violations, and a reduction in the risk of public exposure.
An ordinance that would encompass the first two bullet points – the inspection requirements – is expected to come before the City Council for a first reading on December 1st, 2009.
Filed under: General
4 comments
N NSHDscott November 17, 2009
A lot of the historic homes in my neighborhood have clay sewer pipes, and over a century of use the bottoms wear away to nothing, hence the “or it has simply disappeared” line. The pipes still do the job as the material just flows over the exposed ground, but I expect that some liquids do seep into the ground as they pass through the reverse halfpipe. I’ve seen this for myself on one of those sewer-snake cameras — on someone else’s house, of course!
K Koop November 18, 2009
What sort of an “inspection” are they talking about? Camera inspection… smoke pressurization? I HATE the endless rules and paperwork the city piles on year after year, but this may actually be worth it.
Treating Storm/Ground water as if it’s sewer water costs us all money.
I don’t like the idea of having city crews fix the side sewers. No offense, but they aren’t anywhere close to as economical as private contractors. We really need to reduce the size of our city employee workforce. Why do we agree to pay $45/hour union wages for the same work we can get from private contractors for $25/hour. And… they don’t HAVE to take a 15 minute break every 2 hours because their union boss negotiated it with our elected officials after a healthy campaign contribution. But I digress…
I’ve seen what people have been charged by the city on LID side sewer replacement and it’s ridiculous. I’ve personally installed and hired private contractors to replace dozens of side sewers over the years in Tacoma. A $5,000 private job would be 12-15k if it were done by city crews.
As much as I hate to say it, I think the best approach would be to have an inspection when a property is sold. That way the onus is on the seller to get it fixed (if necessary). It shouldn’t be paid for by taxpayers. Unfortunately this is just going to add one more hurdle to closing a property in a time where it’s already nearly impossible to get a house through escrow.
D Douglas Tooley November 18, 2009
Fixing a side sewer when you are replacing the street feeder is relatively simple as a sleeve type repair can likely be added from the Street side, if I understand correctly.
I was there yesterday and there was also some talk about the City replacing the Side Sewer only up to the Sidewalk – curious as to whether that is a modification option for the Basin replacement plan, or what.
From the sidewalk to the house is conceivably a DIY project.
All-in-all it is great to see the City partnering with property owners in updating our infrastructure, though I do wonder if we couldn’t do an even better job along these same lines.
J Jesse November 20, 2009
Why don’t they have a rebate on your sewer bill if you plant a tree on your property? Like $10-$15 a tree for approved trees with appropriate root systems for private property and native to the NW. Trees suck up hundreds of gallons of water and they are beautiful. Thousands of trees would suck up a whole lot of water otherwise going into the storm system.