Sewer Department to Conduct Comprehensive Audit and Analysis
The Lake Charter Township Sewer Department will be conducting a comprehensive investigation of our sewer system to identify and address inflow and infiltration (I&I) issues. This critical infrastructure assessment will help improve our community's wastewater management and prevent potential environmental and infrastructure problems. Our sewer system is aging. It isn’t “old,” but it is aging. Our sewer flow has increased in recent years, and we need to find out why. I&I is a constant battle for all sewer systems, and the cause can be elusive. Our sewer collection system sends sewage, not infiltrated water, to the sewage processing plant. Starting in late winter/early spring of 2025, we will be inspecting the sewer system with CCTV, physical inspections of all of the system manholes, and smoke testing.
What We Expect to Find
CCTV gives us visual confirmation of suspected leaks/breaks. Visual inspections of all the manhole lids will confirm leaking/broken lids. Smoke testing can reveal illegal stormwater connections to sanitary sewers, cracked or broken sewer laterals, open or damaged cleanout caps, improperly sealed pipe connections, and issues with foundation drainage systems. When we conducted smoke testing in the late summer of 2024, we identified these issues and other connection problems.
The photos below show problems identified by the smoke test conducted last summer. Any water entering the places where there is smoke is considered inflow. This could be rain/snow, irrigation, etc. Any extra water entering our sewer system results in higher flows to the sewer plant and more processing needed, which equates to higher sewer prices for all customers.
