Council to discuss sewer maintenance

    The Washington City Council is slated to discuss the use of smoke to uncover where and how excess water is entering the city?s sanitary sewer. City Administrator Dave Plyman said the city would notify the community when the smoke test is to take place, which would be within a few weeks. The city will test a block of houses at once, and will alert the residents of the block either in person or by leaving a note on their door.

    Plyman said that the wastewater plant is treating large quantities of storm water that do not belong in the sewer system. Somehow or other, water that should be going to the storm sewer is finding its way into the sanitary sewer. Plyman said that pumping smoke through the sanitary sewer would reveal the location of those unwanted tributaries.

    Plyman said that if smoke comes out of the gutters, that means rainwater is going to the sanitary sewer, and that is a problem because rainwater does not need to be treated. He also said that smoke should not come out of basement drains. If it does, that means harmful sewer gases, such as methane, are escaping into the home.

    Plyman recommends that residents pour a quart of water down their basement drains. The water acts as a trap that prevents the noxious sewer gases from traveling through the pipes and into the home.

    Plyman said the smoke should come out air vents on the tops of homes, where sewer gas normally exits.

    The city is in the process of applying for a Community Development and Housing Rehabilitation block grant. Plyman said the grant would go toward refurbishing homes owned by low- to moderate-income families. If successful, five families would be given $25,000 each in the form of a forgivable loan. In order to receive the full $25,000, the family would have to stay in its home five years after receiving the loan. The grant is being handled by the state but the funding would come from the federal government.

    Plyman said the city received the housing rehabilitation grant five years ago, but has been left out in the cold ever since.

    ?We have applied for the grant every year, so it?s disheartening that we haven?t received it for the past four years,? said Plyman.