Steve Soupir (far right) presents the I and I draft report at Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting. Photo by Sally Y. Hart

The sanitary sewer system in the southeast portion of Washington was recently examined and the draft report was presented at Tuesday’s Washington City Council meeting. The smoking, televising and examination was done in an effort to pinpoint problems that may be causing inflow and infiltration of storm water into the sanitary sewer system. This inflow and infiltration, when excessive, can cause back ups into private systems. Steve Soupir with FOX Engineering said there is work that needs to be done on 23% of the 292 manholes in the basin. He says there’s about 80 castings and seals that may need replaced and 68 manholes that need to be lined to keep infiltration out. During the investigation of the 45,000 feet of pipe, two connections were found and remediated.

Soupir added, moving forward the plan of action for the City all depends on how much money and time they want to put into it. The projection, based on the southeast basin data, with a 20-year planning period it is about $4.6 million or $235,000 per year just for the basin. Looking at the remaining basins they created a projection, with the same 20-year planning period the city is looking at $11 million or $450,000 per year.

City Administrator Brent Hinson said the council may want to consider a bond issuance next fiscal year and the subsequent year to help fund work. The southeast basin is one of four in Washington.