Onondaga County
Drain and Sewer Cleaning in Salina, Between Two Pump Stations
A backwater valve is worth pricing in Salina for a reason that has nothing to do with water arriving at the house. The county models the Brown Avenue and Ley Creek pump stations at 49.4 and 43.2 percent content damage in a large flood, and a pump station out of action is a street with nowhere to send its sewage.
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Why a 1960 median build year puts Salina in the fiber pipe window
The Town of Salina annex to the 2025 county hazard mitigation plan lists several wastewater pump stations exposed to the 100 and 500 year floods, including the Brown Avenue Pump Station at 398 Brown Avenue with modeled damage of 7.0 percent to structure and 49.4 percent to contents, and the Ley Creek Pump Station at 5157 Ley Creek Drive with 6.4 percent structure and 43.2 percent content damage. The annex also records that the Town has no unique vulnerability to flood events beyond the county norm.
Source: Onondaga County 2025 Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan, accessed 2026-09-08
Section P3008.1 of the New York residential code requires that where the flood level rims of plumbing fixtures sit below the elevation of the manhole cover of the next upstream manhole in the public sewer, those fixtures shall be protected by a backwater valve installed in the building drain, a branch of it, or the horizontal branch serving them. Section P3008.2 requires the valve to be of the normally open type where fixtures sit above that elevation, and section P3008.4 requires that the valve be installed so its working parts stay accessible.
Source: 2020 Residential Code of New York State, Section P3008, via UpCodes, accessed 2026-09-08
The Town of Salina has 16,016 housing units with a median year built of 1960. Of those, 24.3 percent were built before 1950 and 47.7 percent between 1940 and 1969, the third highest mid-century share of any town in Onondaga County behind Camillus at 53.4 percent and Geddes at 51.6 percent.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year, tables B25034 and B25035, accessed 2026-09-08
The Wetzel Road Wastewater Treatment Plant at 4020 Wetzel Road, Liverpool, was created in 1976 when the county legislature consolidated three sanitary districts and upgraded the Morgan Road plant, to provide sanitary sewers to portions of the towns of Salina and Clay. By 1980 population growth required the plant to double its capacity.
Source: Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, accessed 2026-09-08
WEP names three causes of basement backups: blockages in the sewer line, inflow during heavy rainfall overwhelming the sewer system, and tree roots infiltrating sewer pipes. Its published prevention steps are to keep fats, oils, grease and wipes out of the drain, to check for sump pumps, roof drains and gutters wrongly connected to the sanitary sewer, to eliminate or redirect an unneeded basement sewer connection, to plug or fit a one-way device to a basement floor drain that connects to the sanitary sewer, and to have a licensed plumber install a backwater valve, which must be inspected and cleaned regularly. The department warns that while a backwater valve is holding back a surcharge it is also stopping flow from leaving the house.
Source: Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, accessed 2026-09-08
The code test for a Salina backwater valve is two elevations
Tell us where your lowest fixture sits and we will say whether the code expects a valve there.
What a Salina household loses when a pump station goes down
Salina's own flood story is a short one, and that is the good news. The town annex to the county hazard plan records no unique vulnerability to flood events beyond the county norm, and then lists the wastewater pump stations that carry the town's sewage: Brown Avenue at 398 Brown Avenue, modeled at 7.0 percent structure and 49.4 percent content damage, and Ley Creek at 5157 Ley Creek Drive at 6.4 and 43.2 percent. A pump station losing its contents does not put water into your house. It takes away the place your house sends water to, and that is the moment a basement fixture below street level finds out what it is connected to. Section P3008.1 of the New York residential code settles whether yours needs protecting, and it is a comparison of two elevations rather than a matter of opinion: where a fixture's flood level rim sits below the cover of the next upstream manhole in the public sewer, that fixture is to be protected by a backwater valve in the building drain or the branch serving it, installed so its working parts stay accessible. Most of Salina drains to the Wetzel Road plant in Liverpool, created in 1976 and doubled in capacity by 1980, which is why the county is strict here about sump pumps and roof leaders wrongly connected to the sanitary side. As for the pipe itself, Salina is the classic post-war suburb of this county: 16,016 housing units, a median year built of 1960, and 47.7 percent built between 1940 and 1969, which is the bituminized fiber window. On a house of that age the material question comes before the blockage question.
Drain, backflow and lateral work we arrange in the town
Clogged and Slow Drain Cleaning
Get one slow or blocked fixture running again, and find out whether the fault stops at that fixture or carries on out to the street.
Drain Cleaning in Salina →Sewer Line Cleaning and Root Removal
Clear the one pipe that carries the whole house out to the street, take the roots or the grease out of it, and establish where along that run the blockage actually sat.
Sewer Line Cleaning in Salina →Sewer Backup and Basement Flooding
Get the line open and the house draining again, then establish whether the water came from your own lateral or from the system in the street.
Sewer Backup in Salina →Sewer Line Inspection and Repair
Find out what is actually wrong with the lateral, how far along the run it sits, and whether the answer is a cleaning, a spot repair or a replacement.
Sewer Line Repair in Salina →Tell us what is happening on your Salina drains
Send your ZIP code and what you are seeing. There is no obligation, and if the line only needs clearing we will say so.