Plumbers in Overton, Texas

Why rainwater in a sewer is a problem

A sanitary system is sized for what households produce, which is fairly predictable. Rainwater entering it is not: an inch of rain across a town is a volume no treatment plant was built to handle, and the result is surcharging mains, backups into the lowest properties, and overflows the utility has to answer for.

The water arrives two ways. Inflow is the direct route: a gutter piped into a sewer line, a sump pump discharging into a floor drain, a yard drain tied into the wrong pipe. Infiltration is the slow one: groundwater seeping into cracked pipes and loose joints, on public mains and on private laterals alike.

Inflow is the one a homeowner can act on, and a single downspout piped into a lateral contributes a startling volume during a storm. Multiply that by a few hundred houses and the plant's problem is explained.

Finding out whether your property contributes

Follow the downspouts. If one disappears into the ground, it goes somewhere, and that somewhere is either a storm arrangement, a soakaway, or the sanitary lateral. A dye test settles it: colour into the downspout, then watch at the cleanout.

Check any sump pump the same way. A pump discharging into a laundry tub, a floor drain or anything indoors is pumping groundwater into the sanitary system every time it runs.

Then look at the lateral itself. Older clay pipe with open joints takes in groundwater continuously in wet weather, and that is infiltration on private property. A camera run during or just after rain shows it clearly, with water visibly entering at the joints.

One symptom worth recognising: fixtures that gurgle or drain slowly only during heavy rain, and recover afterwards. That is the system running full, and it is a strong signal that inflow is a problem in your area whether or not your own property is part of it.

Doing the disconnection properly

A downspout gets separated from the sanitary line and taken to daylight, a soakaway, or a storm system where one exists, and the old connection is capped properly rather than just abandoned. The point is to leave no path back into the sanitary line.

Sump discharge goes outside, well away from the building, and not to a place where it simply runs back to where it came from.

Private laterals taking in groundwater get repaired or lined, which also solves the root problem that usually accompanies it. That is a bigger job than a downspout and it is often the more significant contribution.

If a utility has written to you, keep the correspondence and get the work documented. Programmes of this kind sometimes offer help with the cost, and they generally want evidence the work was done.

We handle all of it across Overton, Henderson, Kilgore and Arp, and we will tell you plainly whether your property is actually contributing before doing any work on the assumption that it is.