WishIwasAplumber
New Member
Longtime lurker, but new poster. Can someone offer feedback on this ejector system that our sewer authority is proposing for urban water backup? See attachment for details.
For background, our town is very dense (mostly attached rowhouses), 95% impermeable, with tiny old sewer lines (some are still wood!). We are right on the coast, with exposure to massive storms. Henri and Ida which dumped 2-3" in an hour! Our sewer systems backup at 0.8"/hour.
Because of our old sewer lines and extreme storms, the majority of our town's homes have storm water backup from the roof. Main sewer line backs up, so the roof water has no where to go; it pushes up in utility floor drains or outdoor drains, which then flow in under doors.
The sewer authority said they cannot afford to upgrade the sewers, so they are proposing the attached system. In short, there would be check valves to keep sewer water from main line out. Between the check valve and the home, there would be an overflow drain that goes into a pit. The pit would have an ejector pump that connects to the house lateral after the check valve, thus forcing the water from the overflow into the main sewer line.
(I am just a housewife, so please know I never in a million years would have thought I'd be talking about check valves and pits.)
I'm active in our community. Local plumbers and architects are skeptical. I can't find a single person who's installed this before. Our sewer authority said it's new (for us at least) and that no one has done it here yet. So...Any thoughts about whether this will work and what kind of plumber would be able to install this? Any feedback on this system?
For example, many of the house laterals are still clay, so lining them will definitely be something ppl have to consider.
Thank you!
For background, our town is very dense (mostly attached rowhouses), 95% impermeable, with tiny old sewer lines (some are still wood!). We are right on the coast, with exposure to massive storms. Henri and Ida which dumped 2-3" in an hour! Our sewer systems backup at 0.8"/hour.
Because of our old sewer lines and extreme storms, the majority of our town's homes have storm water backup from the roof. Main sewer line backs up, so the roof water has no where to go; it pushes up in utility floor drains or outdoor drains, which then flow in under doors.
The sewer authority said they cannot afford to upgrade the sewers, so they are proposing the attached system. In short, there would be check valves to keep sewer water from main line out. Between the check valve and the home, there would be an overflow drain that goes into a pit. The pit would have an ejector pump that connects to the house lateral after the check valve, thus forcing the water from the overflow into the main sewer line.
(I am just a housewife, so please know I never in a million years would have thought I'd be talking about check valves and pits.)
I'm active in our community. Local plumbers and architects are skeptical. I can't find a single person who's installed this before. Our sewer authority said it's new (for us at least) and that no one has done it here yet. So...Any thoughts about whether this will work and what kind of plumber would be able to install this? Any feedback on this system?
For example, many of the house laterals are still clay, so lining them will definitely be something ppl have to consider.
Thank you!