Private Property- What we Learned About Detecting, Fixing and Solving I/I Problems Over 35 Years

Sewer System Evaluation Surveys or Sanitary Sewer Evaluation Surveys, alternatively known as SSES projects have been in use to conduct systematic examinations of sewer systems since the early 1970’s. The purpose of these surveys is to identify Inflow and Infiltration (I/I) and determine the locations, estimated flow rates, type and cost of sewer rehabilitation versus the cost of transporting and treating each I/I source to a wastewater treatment plant. The original SSES manual recommended many types of testing and inspection methods, however, time and experience has shown that some of the methods are not effective or even fail to identify certain sources, especially on private property. Many methods defined early on have been enhanced due to emerging technologies such as pole cameras and lateral launch cameras. This paper identifies some of the methods of private property sources and how they changed since SSES inspections were started.