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Sewer Maintenance and Environmental Management System
What could happen if the system fails?
If the sanitary sewer system fails, raw sewage can back up into homes or businesses or overflow onto the ground. Failures of the system can create public health, odor and sanitation problems.
What causes the sanitary sewer system to have failures?
The discharge of anything besides human waste, used water, or toilet paper can cause blockages in the sanitary sewer system that cause backup or overflows. The most common materials that cause blockages are grease accumulation or paper and cloth materials that are not flushable. Tree roots intruding into the pipeline and vandalism can also cause failures.
What is the City doing to prevent problems within the sanitary sewer system?
The City has a very proactive preventive maintenance program that includes routine cleaning of the mains by flushing; chemical treatment to the mains to help eliminate debris accumulation; and root, grease, and easement maintenance which includes mowing and tree removal. The City also has budgeted in the Capital Improvement Program significant funding for the replacement and rehabilitation of its aging sanitary sewer infrastructure.
Where are the sanitary sewer mains located?
The sanitary sewer mains can be located either in the public right-of-way (the streets roads) or on private property in dedicated sanitary sewer easements, typically along property lines.
What is a Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO)?
A SSO is the discharge of raw wastewater from the sewer system out onto the ground or into a waterway. This is a release of waste onto private property and adjacent creek or stream or, in the worst of cases, into a customer's home. These spills have various causes, the principal ones being the buildup of fats, oils, and grease as well as root infiltration. A solid maintenance program helps to prevent SSOs from occurring. The City of Raleigh experiences approximately 50 such occurrences each year despite our best efforts to prevent them. This is a comparatively low number given the amount of sewer lines in active service.
Sewer Maintenance Environmental Management System (SMEMS)
The City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department (CORPUD) Sewer Maintenance Division received certification for their Environmental Management System (EMS) in January of 2015, which was created to advance sound environmental performance by controlling the impacts of their activities on the environment. Sewer Maintenance developed this EMS to improve the environmental performance of its collection system management activities and demonstrate this performance to stakeholders. The Sewer Maintenance Environmental Management System is a certified ISO 14001:2015 system.
An EMS is a management framework for integrating environmental considerations into day-to-day operations and decision-making, and for improving organizational performance over time.
Policy Statement
“To responsibly operate and maintain the sanitary sewer collections system, while meeting our compliance obligations, continually improving performance, providing environmental protection, and pollution prevention.”
The Sewer Maintenance Division is committed to upholding this policy in the following areas:
- Economic:
- Manage assets and resources by setting goals, objectives, and targets for continual improvement.
- Social
- Communicate and educate stakeholders, interested parties, and staff
- Environmental
- Comply with applicable laws, regulations, and requirements
- Improve in performance, compliance, and system O&M for prevention of pollution.