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Lorain board weighs homeowner check-valve program as sewage backups keep damaging basements
Summary
At a Sewer Water Advisory Board meeting, members discussed recurring basement backups after an August 2023 storm, options to reduce inflow and infiltration (I&I) including homeowner-installed check valves and sump pumps, and the costs and ownership questions tied to any assistance program.
At a meeting of the Sewer Water Advisory Board, members and city staff spent significant time discussing repeated basement flooding in older neighborhoods and possible city and homeowner measures to prevent sewage from entering basements.
The discussion centered on a pattern the board first identified after an Aug. 22, 2023 storm, when sanitary sewers overloaded and sewage entered private basements. Mr. McGannan, chair of the Sewer Water Advisory Board, summarized the board’s prior recommendation that the city review engineering reports from 2006 to see whether measures could be applied now to reduce sewer backups at the property line.
Mr. Carbonaro, utilities director, told the board he had asked City Engineer Darryl Vanderselman to review the prior numbers with a consultant and concluded the city could not realistically fund a broad program to purchase and install check valves for homeowners. “The amount of money due to the increased cost of purchasing the check valves and then installing the check valves, it’s you're gonna get a small for a large price, you're gonna get a very, very small impact,” Carbonaro said, adding the city has invested about $12 million over six years in sewer relining and plans roughly another $500,000 a year and noted the city’s staffing and maintenance obligations.
Board members and several residents described long-running, sometimes severe, damage. Ms. Kutcher, a board member, said her mother, who lives on a fixed income, “every time it rains, her basement floods,” and that the family has considered leaving Lorain because of repeated damage. Mary Smrzykowski, Marine City Council at large, said many affected homes were built before 1956 with footer drains tied directly into the sanitary sewer and identified those neighborhoods as largely low-to-moderate income. She suggested using Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds and a multi-department work session (utilities, engineering, building and planning) to investigate avenues for assistance.
Board members described an earlier program the board considered in 2005–2006 that would have limited city payment for check valves to households with documented basement flooding from sewer overload. Mr. McGannan said the check valve would typically be placed about one or two feet onto private property and become the homeowner’s property, with the homeowner responsible for maintenance.
Residents and board members raised alternatives to full city funding. Ideas discussed included cost-sharing, point-of-sale requirements for properties with footer tiles, installment financing via property tax or sewer-bill assessments, referrals to contractors for discounted check valves, and targeting assistance to elderly or low-income homeowners. Mr. Carbonaro and other staff said the city’s relining program and pump-station investments have reduced some I&I, but the rapid inflow caused by footer-tile ties to sanitary sewers remains a persistent source of localized backups.
Speakers agreed a mix of actions would be required: continuing sewer relining to reduce infiltration, identifying houses with documented flooding for priority assistance, and developing feasible funding and administrative mechanisms for installation and maintenance. No formal policy or program was adopted at the meeting; the board asked staff to continue compiling data (including the city’s annual SSO report submitted to federal and state EPA) to estimate the scope and cost of a targeted program.
The board also discussed the practical and legal considerations of city ownership of devices placed on private property. Carbonaro warned of the maintenance burden if the city were to own and maintain homeowner equipment and emphasized that funding mechanisms and ownership must be carefully designed to avoid adding long-term city maintenance costs.
Ending: Board members said they will continue to collect SSO (sanitary sewer overflow) data and explore multi-department options, including seeking grant funding, to define a pilot or targeted program to address documented basement flooding caused by sewer overloads.
