Backflow woes

Part of the problem with living in an older neighborhood, is that you have older plumbing. Some may remember last summer about the Illinois river, and the water coming from it, having a foul smell and higher levels of bacteria associated with fecal matter. Yum... Likewise you will recall that many years ago the Federal government mandated separate sewer and storm systems. Like many old cities Peoria has not exactly complied with this.

Anyways, we have been having backfloe issues with our sewer/storm drain. It's is a unified line here. In asking around about this, I found from the city that most of the East and West Bluffs, and 'down the hill' all are STILL on the unified system. I don't have the option to tap into a separate sewer line. So... when it rains, shit happens. We have since closed off the basement floor drain, which is not an ideal solution.

Now... GPSD and the City of Peoria have a program for Backup Relief. New homes today are not supposed to be built with a 'gravity' system but rather are supposed to have some sort of pump or whatever to prevent backup. Older homes can get some assistance to convert over. From the GPSD website:

The Sanitary District recognizes that backups of wastewater into basements do occur despite regular cleaning and maintenance of the sewer system. In response, in 1994, the District adopted a policy to prohibit gravity sewer service to basements for all new construction. That same year the District also established a cost-sharing program to assist property owners in modifying building plumbing to eliminate gravity sewer service to basements in existing buildings. This is an effective method to eliminate sewer backup under almost all conditions. The cost-sharing program assists property owners in bringing older construction into compliance with current practice and pays 75% of the conversion costs up to a maximum District contribution of $3,500 per location. This cost-sharing program was communicated to property owners in the spring of 2001 and winter of 2001-2002 along with the user charge bills. The District’s solution to the basement backup problem is this cost-sharing program. Please contact the District’s Engineering Department at 637-3511 extension 631 for further information.

As I said it is a joint effort with the City. For the West Bluff, administration is with the city, call Mike Taylor @ 494-8821 for information,