has anyone participated in the village's overhead sewer / check valve installation cost sharing program? If so, I would be interested in hearing about who did the work and what your experience was with getting cooperation from the village.

I need to have this work done and am just now contacting contractors and getting in touch with the village. Any advice would be appreciated.

We are still in process with this. We filled out the paperwork and submitted a sewer video. Now we are lining up getting the work done before this spring gets any wetter.

DTM - any problems getting the approval from the village? did you hire a different contractor to do the video than the contractor that is doing the work? are you doing overhead or check valve? any contractor recommendations? appreciate any feedback. thanks,

We did the cost share back at the start of the program a few years back. We did the overhead sewer. I think the video inspection of the sewer was done by Dahmer Plumbing.

Armbrust did the actual work. We were very pleased with them. It was a dusty job due to concrete cutting & excavatation. Their employees were impressive.

We had no trouble w/ village approval, red tape, etc.

We'd had a couple instances of dirty water in the basement, and it's not fun. It turns out, there was a problem in the village's line downstream from our house that was exacerbating the issue. After that was resolved, it was not clear we really "needed" the protective work at our house. When it's all said and done, it was a great investment for peace of mind.

NEBF - thanks for the info. have a couple of detail follow-up questions, if you have a second: Did you, in fact, get three quotes for this work? (as the village requests). And was there any push back / reluctance from the contractors who did not do the video inspection on using an inspection tape from another company?


thanks in advance

No problems getting the approval, we hired a contractor to do the sewer video ($200) and submitted that with our application and quotations. We were given approval and now are deciding who to go with.

We are looking at the overhead sewer option, since the check valve is cheaper, but if it closes due to a sewer backup and you don't know it, then when you flush the toilet it will overflow. I was told if you have a heavy rain like the one we had in september, then just don't flush the toilet or run the laundry. To me that is unacceptable.

I have yet to see a layout/system that offers no worries.

Yes, we did get the multiple vendor quotes. I don't recall exactly which three.

The purpose of the video is primarily to verify/confirm that you don't have storm drain connections to the sanitary sewer. Long story short, the Village won't help you pay to protect your basement while allowing you to pipe all of your downspouts into the sanitary sewer.

Yes, it's also good via the video to confirm that the house line is in decent condition before you spend a bunch of money upstream of it.

Finally, I think they required a "plan" w/ the application? I drew that myself on some graph paper w/ feedback from the plumbers giving quotes.

One thing I should add for those considering the overhead sewer option. It may be a good time to rough in and/or relocate any drains in your basement (e.g. floor drain at water heater, wet bar, shower, etc.).

Will the Village allow sump pumps or other types of drains that carry storm water, surface water, or other types of runoff to be connected to the storm sewers in the street? I'm talking strictly non-sanitary type lines here. It would seem more efficient to just take this water and send it directly into the storm sewers than to let it sit or flow on the surface. Anyone know if this is possible?

quote:

Originally posted by Iceburg:
Will the Village allow sump pumps or other types of drains that carry storm water, surface water, or other types of runoff to be connected to the storm sewers in the street? I'm talking strictly non-sanitary type lines here. It would seem more efficient to just take this water and send it directly into the storm sewers than to let it sit or flow on the surface. Anyone know if this is possible?

Yes you can hook your sump pump to the storm sewer, but the clearwater grant ended last year (so you foot the whole cost).

@ Iceburg - it is efficient in some ways, but it's not very "green". You eliminate any water getting absorbed into the ground/plants and you lose any natural pollutant filtration. If everyone tight-lined their downspouts to the street, you'd quickly overwhelm the local storm sewer. That is why they require storm water detention storage for new development.

Specific to a sump pump, storm sewers will by design surcharge during a big rain. Proceed with caution when connecting your sump to that system.

Thanks for the info. Is there some type of backflow restrictor valve that can be used in the line to prevent what you describe from happening? Or, can a clearwater line have an overhead lift type configuration between the sump pit and the street to prevent a surcharge from the storm sewer line entering the house during a heavy rain?

It's really going to come down to the topography near your house. There are surely methods to protect your clean water system from the street, such as you described. If it was just your house gutters or a yard drain, no big deal, they will just temporarily surcharge, too, and pressure flow into the sewer eventually.

But in the case of your basement sump, at a time when the street is flooded, chances are your sump pump will be running full bore. You need that foundation water to get out. You don't have the luxury of the o/h sanitary sewer situations described above. Oh, I just won't use my laundry and basement shower right now. That's going to be a decision for mother nature. Maybe they have a way for the discharge to start overflowing to the ground; but that takes you back to square 1 in some ways.

Thanks NEBF. I think I am getting it.

It sounds like anything that opens up on the interior for clear water like foundation drainage into the sump pit is not a good candidate for direct hook up to the storm sewer line in the street, the risks are too great for back ups to enter the house interior.

On the other hand, there may be some benefit to hooking up your outside clearwater run off sources (gutters, driveway drains, yard drain tile) to a collector basin and run a link to the village storm sewer if you want to keep that surface runoff from making your yard, or a neighbors yard, a soggy mess.

If that outside basin gets surcharged and backs up (the floating manhole effect), it just overflows outside and you're no worse off than had you been without the system. Your yard, etc. just floods with clearwater coming back up out of the storm sewer.

Can this hook up be done? I see on the Village website that there is some kind of permission needed, its not an automatic done deal upon request -

Clearwater Removal Program
...Rainwater and groundwater should be discharged to the ground near the point it falls and allowed to flow above ground where it can be collected by the storm sewer system. In certain cases, sump pumps can be connected directly to the Village/public storm sewer system....
glenellyn.org...

How do you get to be one of the "in certain cases"?

And, does "certain cases" also apply to these non-sump pump, exterior clearwater run-off situations I brought up?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ted E.,

Sorry, I don't know how you get to be a 'certain case'. Probably there'd need to be a case where you're extremely confined as to where you can discharge your sump pump (i.e. your yard is shaped like a gravy boat and you need to discharge at the spout), and that pumping water at that point will cause some sort of downstream problem.

I don't think you can discharge your other drains directly to the storm sewer, but you may be able to regrade your yard to a low point and have a connection to the sewer from there. See eco-concern description from my post above.