Sump pump hunt in Clear Lake
August 11, 2009

The city of Clear Lake, Iowa, is conducting a massive hunt for illegal sump pump connections. In most places, it is against the law to connect a domestic sump pump to a municipal sewer line, and for good reason. Sump pumps obviously produce most of their flows during periods of heavy rain, which in turn causes wastewater treatment plants to become needlessly overloaded. Sewer systems face heavier loads during heavy rain periods than during dry weather simply due to ordinary infiltration and inflow as water finds its way into cracks in sewer lines and through manholes. But adding to those flows are illegal sump pump connections, which send extra water to wastewater plants that end up treating what is otherwise mostly clean stormwater.

August 2009
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last revised August 2009