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Information on Sump Pump Inspection and Cross Connection <br />The City of Little Canada Sump Inspection program is designed to help homeowners identify cross <br />connected sump pumps, so they can be properly connected, and to alert homeowners who do not have <br />sump pumps to the ordinance requiring that they be inspected if installed in the future. <br />What is a cross connection? <br />A cross connection happens when a sump pump is connected to a sanitary sewer line. Often, this can be a <br />hose leading into a laundry tub or a floor drain. Sump pumps are supposed to drain into storm sewers, <br />either through a direct connection (a pipe from the home connecting with the main storm sewer line), or <br />through draining directly onto the ground or into the gutter outside the home. <br />Why are cross connections a problem? <br />Sump water is what engineers call "clear water," most often rain water, ground water, or snow melt. This <br />water is clean enough to drain directly into area streams, ponds, and lakes, without treatment. Wastewater <br />— water from your sinks, showers, tubs, toilets, and washing machines — must be treated at your area <br />wastewater treatment plant before it can be safely discharged into the environment. <br />When "clear water" is added to wastewater, it can overload the collection system. The MPCA has <br />estimated that a single home with a cross connected sump pump can add up to 1,400 gallons of water to <br />the system during one average rain storm. That is the equivalent of flushing your toilet 280 times (based <br />on a standard toilet with a five gallon tank — if you have a low -flow toilet with a three gallon tank, you <br />would have to flush 466 times). Multiply that by the number of homes in your neighborhood, and the <br />magnitude of the problem because evident. <br />Why should I care? <br />Excess water in the treatment system costs the City, and you, money. Rates at the treatment plant are <br />based on the number of gallons that flow through the system. When "clear water" enters the system <br />through cross connected sump pumps, everyone pays to treat water that is already clean. City staff <br />estimates that Little Canada sends approximately 125 million gallons of "clear water" through the system <br />annually. This costs the City an extra $165,000 annually in wastewater treatment bills, a cost that is <br />passed to individual customers through increased sewer rates. Clearing up the cross connection problem <br />will help keep increases to a minimum. <br />How can they tell when storm water gets into the system? <br />It is not difficult to find out if extra water is entering the system. All homes have water meters that <br />measure the amount of water you use. Think of that water as flowing through your home — it enters, is <br />used (for cooking, washing, cleaning), and then goes down the drain. If the amount of water that reaches <br />the treatment plant is far in excess of the amount being delivered to homes, then obviously, extra water is <br />entering the system. <br />Are cross connections the only cause of this? <br />No. Water can infiltrate the system through improper connections, bad joints, cracks, deteriorated <br />manholes or breaks in the sanitary sewer pipe. This is not a big problem in Little Canada, because the <br />Page 97 <br />