Private Side Weeping Tile Disconnections from the Sanitary Sewer to Prevent Basement Flooding in London Ontario

The City of London undertook publically funded, focused private side source control measures to combat chronic residential basement flooding caused by wet weather inflow/infiltration (I/I) into the sanitary sewer. This report focuses on a specific pilot project undertaken in the summer of 2013 to disconnect private side weeping tile from residential sanitary laterals. The target street, located at the upstream end of a sanitary sewer system, consisted of 68 single family residential houses. This street experienced numerous sanitary sewer backups in the past caused by excessive flows from weeping tile connections to the sanitary, overwhelming the street’s local sanitary sewer during large rainfall events. Post project sewer flow monitoring results are included along with conclusions. The disconnection of private weeping tile allowed the City to remove extraneous inflow and infiltration at the source in a cost effective manner, and eliminated the need for more costly pipe upsizing or storage solutions to address wet weather flow volumes.