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City of Ann Arbor SSWWEP - Citizens Advisory Committee Coordination — City of Ann Arbor

1.50 - C - Why are there backups in homes without footing drains?

Posted by Lori Byron on 20 Dec, 2013
Category: Category 1 - SSWWEP Questions and Presentations

Frank Burdick’s Log Number: N/A
Submitted by: 
Category (1,2,3): 
Status: Closed
Estimated date to address: N/A

Q. 1.50 - CAC August meeting – Why are there backups in homes without footing drains?
A. A house without a footing drain may experience a sanitary sewage backup with the sanitary sewer backs up to a level above an adjacent basement floor elevation. One potential cause occurs when the sanitary sewer system is overwhelmed with infiltration and inflow during a large storm event and cannot keep up with the flows discharged to the sanitary sewer. In that case, the sewer flow becomes pressurized and sewage will leave the sewer systems at the low points in the system. If the low point in the system is a basement (or several basements), the sewage will back up in those basements. Another cause of a backup could simply be due to blockage in the sanitary sewer or the sanitary lead to the house. 

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