[rbulden]

Is draining your sump pump into the main sewer drain of house legal?

[speedball1]

Is draining your sump pump into the main sewer drain of house legal?

In some areas the answer is yes, Call your Building Department and check. In my area it's illegal to discharge anything in the city sewer except sewage and gray water. The reason for this is that they have to process everything as though it was sewage and that drives the cost up to the customer, Check it out before you connect to the sewer line. Good luck. Tom

[Milo Dolezal]

In my area, it is also illegal to drain sump pump into sewer. Milo

[wauya]

IF you drain sump pump water into your house sewer.Your sewer bill will scare you.

[massplumber2008]

Hi Wauya...

Your statement is incorrect. A sump pump discharging into a sewer system doesn't increase the price of a homeowner's sewer bill in the short run as there is no way to measure the discharge coming from the pump, but it does cost all consumers in the long run as it eventually drives up the cost of treating the sewage due to the extra volume of clean water (ground water) being treated as sewage water. That make sense?

It is always a good idea, if not an absolute requirement in most areas, to run the sump pump discharge to an outside drywell or its equivalent.

Mark

[speedball1]

IF you drain sump pump water into your house sewer.Your sewer bill will scare you.

While your bill won't increase but you may be cited for illegal dumping. Check with your local Building Department.
Mark mentioned a dry well. Let me show you what he meant.(see image). Good luck, Tom

[wauya]

Hi mark,
How they calculate your sewer bill? You will say that depend on the amount of water which supply by the local water company,but as I know many housing use collected rainfall water for toilet which are not supply by water company.Then what?Things may not as simple as you see.

[Milo Dolezal]

In my area, sewer bill is calculated as follows: Amount of water coming in = amount of water coming out. In other words: if your water meter shows 100 gallons of water coming into your house than they charge you for 100 gallons of water discharged into the City sewer.

Yes, they don't take in consideration water used for irrigation which is not disposed into City sewer but stays in the ground. If you don't want to be charged for water used for irrigation than you install 2nd water meter called "Irrigation Meter". City than reads both meters, subtracts reading from irrigation meter from main water meter and the difference is the actual waste water disposed into City sewer.

Hope that helps. Milo

[massplumber2008]

Hi again Wauya...

Boy, you sure are stretching things here, huh?

The fact is that you suggest something that is VERY UNCOMMON (rain water collection system) and has no place in this conversation or thread as the original asker, rbulden didn't mention anything about such stuff.

If you wanted to suggest such a specialized case then you should have presented your case in that manner to begin with. However, all you said was, "IF you drain sump pump water into your house sewer. Your sewer bill will scare you". You did not clarify anything and your answer made no sense in terms of the original question so I needed to step in and say so. If I didn't, I assure you, another plumbing expert would have... ;)

Please, be clear that if you want to post in the plumbing forum that you need to present your answers in a manner that is clear to anyone reading it. Otherwise, you can expect one of the plumbing experts to chime in and balance the thread as needed, OK?

Have a good day!

Mark

[wauya]

Hi again MARK,
May I ask you ,you as an expert,If this is a common question.How can you drainage sump pump water to ordinary sewer line? Open up the sewer line? And how? Or pump those water to upstare to the toilet ?I know some old house has direct drainage to sewer line then no need for sump pump.This is not common question and deserve a not common answer.

[Milo Dolezal]

Wauya:

Are we confusing terminology here ? Just to make clear:

Sump pump pumps rain water to the curb
Sewer Ejector pumps waste water to the City Sewer

Milo

[mygirlsdad77]

Wauya,

rbuldens question is asked more commonly than you might think. Maybe not here, but trust me, people in general don't know if they can do this or not. It's a pretty straight forward answer that most licensed plumber will give, and that answer is usually NO. However, some areas do allow it, and it will not increase your sewer bill. Well at least not only your sewer bill, but everyone's over time due to excess cost of treatment.

Now, like I said, the original question is not uncommon. And the fact is, the asker needs to check with local authority having jurisdiction. Hope that clears things up a bit. Take care.

[wauya]

Mygrilfrienddad,
You are right.If the home owner try to do it by themselves to open up the sewer line could be danger if don't know how, the harmful gas will get in the house.If ask licensed plumber to do it they have to follow the local code otherwise they will lose their license.As I know in most area in USA is not let this happen because the sewer system can not handle all the extra load.Once heavy rain drop will have sever flooding Thanks for your expert opinion .

[mygirlsdad77]

You are welcome wauya. But man, you really butchered my screen name :D Im sure that was an accident, right:confused: :mad::)

[wauya]

Mygirlsdad,
Very very sorry I address you wrong NAME.I OWN YOU A BIG APOLOGY.

[mygirlsdad77]

No problem. Apology accepted.