Make sure your sump pump is hooked up correctly, warns City of Summerside

The City of Summerside is reminding home owners who have sump pumps of the correct way to run them to avoid causing disruptions at the sewer treatment plant.

This comes following recent rain and thaw events that almost caused a big problem at the lift stations and the sewage treatment plant, when sewer flows reached a maximum. 

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"The big rain storm we had here a few weeks ago, the big thaw and then the rain, came close to overflowing," said Coun. Gordie Whitlock, chair of the municipal works committee.

"The big sewer work that we did over by Kentucky Fried Chicken, we saw some pictures of that, that was built for a 150 year storm and it was very close to over capacity."

Direct sump pump to gutters

Whitlock explained that homeowners who have connected their sump pumps to discharge into their sewer lines can add more water to the plant, causing high flows which could eventually back up their neighbour's lines downstream. 

Staff are trying to educate homeowners.

"They're just encouraging people if they do have sump pumps, and lots of people do, to exit it out where your roof water comes through your gutters as opposed to into your sewer system." Whitlock said. 

"Our staff down there are extremely trained and were able to manage it but any more water than we got would have been a big problem."

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