Sewer Backup and Basement Flooding in Syracuse

Stop everything that puts water into the drains: no flushing, no showers, no washing machine, no dishwasher. All of it comes back up in the same place while the line is blocked. Keep people and pets out of the water, and if it is near an outlet or an appliance, turn off power to that part of the basement at the panel. Then call.

Phones are answered 24/7 and the three things worth having ready are what is backing up, where in the house it is, and whether it is raining outside.

Often not, and it is worth knowing which before you buy anything. WEP states that the City of Syracuse has a combined sewer system, sewage and stormwater in one pipe, while the other municipalities in the county have separate storm and sanitary systems. Only about 5.3 days a year here bring an inch of rain or more, and those are the days a combined system is under pressure.

Twenty combined sewer overflows were still operational at the end of 2018, ten on Harbor Brook and nine on Onondaga Creek, and every discharge has to be made public within four hours of discovery. A backup that lines up with a reported event is a different argument from one that does not.

The code answers it with a measurement rather than an opinion. Section P3008.1 of the New York residential code requires a backwater valve where the flood level rims of plumbing fixtures are below the elevation of the manhole cover of the next upstream manhole in the public sewer. Where fixtures sit above that elevation, the valve has to be a normally open type, and in all cases it must be installed so its working parts stay accessible. Two conditions come with it.

WEP requires it to be inspected and cleaned regularly, and warns that while the valve is holding back a surcharge it is also stopping flow leaving the house, so it needs a household rule as well as a fitter.

It depends which side of a line in the ground the fault sits on, and that is establishable. The county's plumbing requirements have sewer lateral repairs reconstructed to the curb line, and where an obstruction in the lateral cannot be cleared and lies under the street bed, the licensed plumbing contractor is to contact the City sewer department and demonstrate it rather than dig. Inside that line, the pipe is yours.

Fayetteville, North Syracuse and East Syracuse all say so in identical words in their own codes: all costs and expense incident to the installation and connection of the building sewer are borne by the owner, who also indemnifies the village against loss.

The federal position is that usually you cannot. The EPA states that where basements flood with sewage the damaged area must be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, and that rugs, curtains, flooring, wallboard and upholstered furniture that contact sewage usually must be replaced. That is unwelcome and it is also the cheaper answer, because the alternative is paying to dry material that has to come out anyway.

Photograph everything before it moves, and note the time the backup started, because that timestamp is what lines your event up with any reported system discharge.