JAMESTOWN – The Board of Public Utilities (BPU) Wastewater Collection crews will be inspecting the sanitary sewer system over the next several months by dye-testing downspouts in an effort to find and remove “illegal” connections to the sanitary sewer system.
According to BPU officials, removal of illegal connections is necessary to prevent the back-up of sewers into homes and buildings, especially during heavy rain storms.
Illegal connections include roof downspouts, sump pumps and footing/foundation drains tied to the house sanitary sewer lines. Storm run-off should be diverted to storm sewers, front or back yards or ground drainage ditches.
To locate illegal connections in the BPU system, crews will begin dye-testing residential houses and commercial building downspouts in high-flow areas. Should the crews discover an illegal connection during the dye testing of downspouts, the property owner will receive a letter advising of the situation and giving the homeowner/business owner a period of time in which to correct the problem.
So in other words, BPU will be trespassing onto homeowners’ private property in order to run tests which, if positive, could cost the homeowner a considerable amount of money to rectify? Will the next headline be, “BPU workers shot by homeowner?”