08/26/2026
Let's call today Wastewater Wednesday! MRWA WW Tech Gary Webber shares some pics and some sage advice for reducing I & I in your system.
When conducting smoke surveys of wastewater collection systems, one statistic that typically holds true is that about 70% of all inflow found is private lateral cleanouts! These are usually easy to spot, and most are 4-inch pipe access to the service lateral. When you add up all the broken cleanouts at the end of the day, you can say we have a big hole in our collection system. Normally, 15-20 C/Os are found during a survey, and I have seen as many as 60 in some towns. So the question is, "How many 4" holes do you want in your collection system?" The answer should be NONE.
