BurningbirdDamn it, it’s time to start writing again, before I get too old and feeble and forget how.
Sorry, still no comments. Last time I had them, it didn’t end well. Hopefully discussions on Facebook and Twitter will be sufficient.
Or the new WT.Social, from Wikipedia’s own Jimmy Wales. I’m ambivalent about it, but if you want to check it out, sign up, and friend me, you can do ALL of this for the low, one-time only price of clicking this link!
The check valve came through.
We had 2.47 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. Before the check valve, we would have been toast. We faced the very real possibility of damaging sewer backup into the main floor of our house.
Last night, not a whimper from the pipes. No bubbling toilets. No clang from a sudden rush of backflow up our lateral.
No backflow into the shower or bathtub, or via the seal on the toilet.
No sewer odor.
Silence. Dry. And we can still use our facilities.
People talk about what they’d miss if civilization suddenly stops. They talk about missing the internet, their phones, TV, and electricity. Well, give a thought to your water and sewer facilities.
Thanks to the O’Fallon sewer and water folks for going above and beyond.
Today will be the first test of the specially engineered duck billed check valve designed specifically for our lateral sewer line.
The O’Fallon Sewer folks really came through for us, being able to find a company who was willing to create something specifically for our odd and trying situation.
Our lateral sewer opens directly into a manhole. The Lake St. Louis force main dumps directly into the O’Fallon gravity main at this same location. And the Lake St. Louis folks have badly overtasked the line. On rainy days, the flow almost overflows the manhole, and the force is enough to drive the flow into our pipes. Loudly.
They’re re-routing the force main to a new gravity main elsewhere, but that work won’t be done until end of year. (Note, in 2023, it’s still noe done.)
Every time we’d get over 1.45″ in 24 hours, the sewer would back up into our bathrooms, leak into basement. Not pleasant.
Regular check valves can’t work, because we always got a little bit of backflow, which would keep the valve closed all the time.
The O’Fallon Sewer Assistant Supervisor wouldn’t give up, and found the duck billed check valve that could work in these circumstances. The company agreed to design one just for us.
It literally is a miniature version of this beastie. You all thought I was joking, but nope, it’s a miniature of these.
It was a real operation to install it, too. They had to shut down the force main, send a truck to blow air into the gravity main further down the line, and lower some poor guy into the manhole. The steps broke, and he had to watch out for the rebar.
Works great when things are calm. Now, in the next two days, we get a real test. Fingers crossed.
Some of you might remember about our problems with our sewer connection.
Well, now we’re literally caught between two public utilities and the source of meetings between two communities.
Public Water District #2 has long planned on moving their force main to a new system, and dump into brand new gravity main north of us. They upgraded their pumps for their new connection and new 24 inch force main. Well, they’re still dumping into their small, older force main (12 inch) that dumps into the even smaller, older gravity main where we happen to be connected. Our connection is literally right above where they dump.
The term is ‘surcharge’. It’s when the manhole is overwhelmed by the discharge flow.
When we were hit in February, the force was enough to shake our house. It backflowed into the new shower, and through the wax seal on one toilet. It threatened to destroy our plumbing, maybe even our house, until O’Fallon sewer workers got Water District 2 to back the hell off.
That wasn’t the end of the discussion. I won’t detail recent correspondence, but Water District 2 is being a butthole.
O’Fallon Sewer is now asking the O’Fallon City Administrator for permission to put a backflow valve on our connection to the main. They have to get permission because though we’re served by O’Fallon sewer, we’re in unincorporated county (and that will never happen again, I promise you). Normally our lateral wouldn’t be covered, but this is an unusual circumstance.
The valve would prevent us getting hit by the direct force of a force main pump expecting to find 24 inches of sewer pipe in the end, not our little lateral sewer connect and our home plumbing.
We won’t be able to flush in high flow days, but at least our home won’t be destroyed. I kid you not when I say our home is now at risk.
When the dust settles, I’ll write up the entire saga at Burningbird.
Long time buddies know about the issues we’ve had with the sewer connection.
We’re connected to the head of a gravity main. Unfortunately, the town next door has a force main that dumps into the gravity main at the same spot. Our lateral sewer connection is sufficient but shallow, especially when the force main pumps into the gravity main.
When we get rain, we can’t flush because the force main discharge backs up into our plumbing.
When we replaced a shower a while back, the plumbers didn’t know about this, and when they cut the connection, we got discharge all over the basement walls. Luckily, insurance covered that.
The Water District 2 folks have been in the process of moving their force main to another discharge location, a much larger and more capable gravity main. This has been in the works for six whole damn years.
But they keep running into bad construction companies, and the town that has the new gravity main keeps pushing the project back. Not until November of 2019 now.
Last night it rained. Not an especially large amount of rain. But when the force main hit today, it actually shook the house, backed up into one shower, and blew out the wax seal on one of the toilets.
That we’re not happy is a given. I think it’s time for me to get a lawyer.