Shared Neighborhood Sewer Connection

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Bluebinky

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Can someone give pointers for a starting point on how to size a multi residence (house) sewer connection to the municipal system?

Basically, the only (cheap) access in the neighborhood is on our property. There are at least six other houses with failing septic systems that could be connected to a man-well on the edge of the property. The hookup fees have already been paid and the idea of hooking up the neighborhood through one connection has been verbally approved by the AHJ -- they said we would be on our own as far as maintenance and ownership of the link...

Property is in King county, WA.

Thanks.
 

hj

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As they stated, HOW do you determine WHO is responsible when a problem occurs, and who pays the bill? Here, the rule is ONE connection, ONE building, just for that reason, and the "cheapest way" is seldom a consideration.
 

Reach4

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King county, WA is not usually easy-going. What is AHJ?

I think you would probably need civil engineering drawings and approvals. Your engineer will tell you if the line should be 6 or 8 inch, what clean-outs you need, and other factors. I don't know what this will do to your assessed valuation, but I suspect some assessed valuations will probably go up due to being connected to the sewer system. I am not a plumber or other related pro.

Are you going to grant an easement to somebody? I think your engineer will be able to recommend an attorney to help keep your rights and liabilities taken care of. It may be that after the system is in, you maybe can grant ownership to the government entity to keep it maintained. They will get an easement from you and others in the process.
 

hj

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agency having jurisdiction.

quote; you maybe can grant ownership to the government entity to keep it maintained.

They would have accept it, and that is very unlikely to happen, unless it is done to the specifications of a main sewer line, which would eliminate the "Cheap" part of the posting.
 

Bluebinky

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OK, We've figured out what needs to be 8 inch and what can be 6 inch, what needs to be engineered, easements, etc. The Midway Sewer District (south of Seattle) is quite friendly to work with...

For my part, the frontage fee has been paid in full, so a $100 permit and I could start digging tomorrow, no plans required!

Now the real fun part. The back half of the property is a fairly level field with a creek (more like surface drainage with about two GPM flow average) just three feet short of the manhole. At the last second, the City decided I needed a wetlands delineation report from a qualified environmental scientist. The silly part is that the entire field was covered in blackberries and after I pull those out there is nothing left but bare dirt. Knowing exactly where the "buffer zones" are is totally silly, since no remediation would be required to return everything to exactly the same state...

The one "quote" I have so far is $5,000 - $10,000 for a full report...

Anyone been through this or know someone qualified that has enough common sense to tell the City of Des Moines that no study is required because no remediation is required?
 

Jadnashua

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The EPA gets involved, and nothing is cheap or easy. The buffer zone size may change, but where I live, it's 100', so if you're in that space, you need all sorts of special engineering and permits to do much of anything that might disrupt that area. Not done it personally, but have read of lots of issues with people in the local paper that have had issue. Lots of issues about whether you could even make a lot a viable building lot, and remodeling requires upholding to the latest regulations. It's not pretty or easy.

Let us know how things work out, but I think you're going to have to bite the bullet on this one if you want to do it at all. If you have flowing water and are going to be digging ditches nearby, it also could get really messy as they could fill up with water along the way depending on the porosity of the soil and the current level of the water table. Your frost line may not be too deep, but you still have to go down to the level where the sewer line is, and that can be down there quite a bit depending on the terrain and the location of the pumping stations or sewage treatment plant.
 

Bluebinky

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Thanks jadnashua.

Luckily, I don't think the EPA gets involved directly. Mostly it seems to be the city and possibly state fish and wildlife.

Just to clarify -- no new development is being done, only running a pipe 275 feet between the existing house and existing manhole. The amount of water in the "stream" is negligible and I've got a muck pump.

It is only 8 feet to the sewer crown, and the excavator that will make short work of that.

I guess I'm mostly looking for a referral...
 

Bluebinky

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Has anyone in the Seattle area had to deal with finding a ecological scientist/engineer to cross a stream? There must be someone willing to take on these small jobs...
 
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