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Why the Rule Exists

The ordinances read like bureaucracy until you know what they are preventing.

The gist

EPA names sump pumps, roof leaders and foundation drains among the connections that overload a sanitary sewer. An overloaded sewer surcharges, and the result is a sanitary sewer overflow: untreated wastewater backing up into basements or reaching surface water.

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.

What EPA says

A sanitary sewer is sized for what a building sends down its drains. Clear water — groundwater, stormwater, snowmelt — is not that, and in quantity it is far more of it.

EPA names the mechanism plainly. Among the causes of sanitary sewer overflows it lists “connections of sources of water such as sump pumps, roof leaders, foundation drains and area drains” as things that can overload a sanitary sewer, alongside leaky pipework letting groundwater in through cracks and faults.

Source: US EPA, Sanitary Sewer Overflow frequent questions.

What overloading one does

When a sanitary sewer takes more than it can carry, the surplus leaves through the nearest available opening — a manhole, a low basement floor drain, a stream.

EPA is specific about what that water carries. Illnesses from exposure to sewage range “from mild gastroenteritis (causing stomach cramps and diarrhea) to life-threatening ailments such as cholera, dysentery, infections hepatitis, and severe gastroenteritis”.

The basement that floods with it is frequently not the one whose pump was connected.

Why it is enforced by the month

A one-off fine costs less than the work, so a one-off fine does not get the connection removed. A charge that recurs every month until an inspection passes does, and that is why the ordinances are written that way.

It is worth understanding before you read yours as unreasonable. The city is not trying to raise money from your basement; it is trying to stop paying to treat rainwater and to stop its sewers surcharging in storms.

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