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Where the Water Is Allowed to Go

This is the question almost no sump pump guide answers, and it is the one with money attached.

The gist

In a great many municipalities it is unlawful to connect a sump pump to the sanitary sewer, and the penalty is usually a recurring monthly charge rather than a one-off fine. Where the discharge is allowed to go is set locally, so the binding answer comes from your own municipality.

Source: US EPA, Sanitary Sewer Overflow frequent questions.

Pit and Pump is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and a discharge connection is usually a permitted alteration — ask to see the permit. We carry out no work, we sell no equipment, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.
The two places a sump pump discharge can be sentA sump pit below ground with two possible discharge routes. The first rises and runs away from the building to daylight or a storm drain and is drawn as the permitted route. The second runs sideways into the sanitary sewer and is crossed through, because connecting a sump pump to the sanitary sewer is unlawful in many municipalities and is charged for by the month.the pitout, and away from the buildingdaylight, a storm drain,or wherever your rule allowsSANITARYthe sewer that carriessewage, not rainwaterunlawful in a great manymunicipalities, and billed
Which of these your own address allows is a local question with a local answer. It is worth asking before the pipe is laid rather than after the first bill.

The short version

A sump pump moves clear groundwater. The sanitary sewer is sized for wastewater. In a great many municipalities, sending the first into the second is unlawful, and the enforcement is a monthly charge rather than a one-off fine.

The rule is local, so no page can tell you what applies at your address — including this one. What it can do is tell you the rule exists, roughly what it says, and who to ask.

One ordinance, quoted

West St. Paul, Minnesota is an ordinary example rather than a severe one. Its code makes it unlawful for anyone on sanitary sewer service to “directly or indirectly cause or permit to be discharged, pumped or drained any clear water drainage into the city’s sanitary sewer system”.

What it requires instead is a discharge line with year-round capability to the outside of the building — to the storm sewer where there is one — and directed to the front or rear yard so it does not run onto the neighboring property.

$50 and $300 a monthThe monthly penalty in that one city for a property that fails inspection, does not repair within the deadline, or reconnects a disconnected line. $50 for an owner-occupied single-family home, $300 for rental, commercial, industrial and HOA properties.

Read the second figure again. On a rental it is $3,600 a year, and it continues until the connection is gone.

Source: City of West St. Paul, Minnesota, municipal ordinance Chapter 50.08, prohibited discharge of clear water drainage.

How to find your own rule

Three places, in this order, and the first one usually settles it.

  1. Your water or sewer utility’s website. The rule is normally on the same page as the sewer rate.
  2. Your municipal code, searching for clear water or sump rather than for “sump pump” — the ordinances are usually written about clear water in general, with sump pumps as one named source.
  3. The building department, by phone. Ask whether a discharge relocation needs a permit as well as what is allowed; in most places it does.

If you are buying, ask before you exchange. An existing illegal connection becomes yours along with the house.

The other constraint nobody mentions

Wherever the water is allowed to go, it has to get there in February. A discharge line that freezes has not failed safely — the pump keeps running against a blocked pipe, and the water comes back to where it started.

That is the reason ordinances like the one above specify year-round discharge capability rather than simply an outside termination. A line that works in June and freezes in January does not comply and does not work.

Where to go next

Done the bucket test?If the pump ran and cleared the pit, you may not need us at all. If it did not, or if you want the discharge looked at, we will route you to somebody who covers your area — the ZIP code is all we need to find them. Free to you. The line is not restricted to sump work; any plumbing job can go through it.

Call (888) 515-3188
Call (888) 515-3188