FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Property owners and residents in the Ravenwood Subdivision are invited to attend an informational open house opportunity 5-7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 20 at Campbell United Methodist Church (1747 E. Republic Road) to learn about the City’s Private Sewer Repair Program.
The Private Sewer Repair Program is a voluntary program that helps prevent rainwater from entering the sanitary sewer system, causing backups into homes and untreated water to overflow into streams and lakes. The program offers property owners the opportunity to have improper connections to the sanitary sewer repaired at no charge.
Boundaries of the qualifying area correspond with a sanitary sewer basin that flows via pipe networks near Lake Springfield. Properties that qualify are located roughly between Reed Avenue (east) and Fremont Avenue (west), and between Vincent Street (south) and James River Freeway (north).
Property owners and residents who qualify will be asked to schedule a no-cost plumbing evaluation to identify improper connections to the sewer system. A typical evaluation lasts less than 45 minutes and involves a two-person team examining such connections as sump pumps, foundation drains, downspouts, yard drains and uncapped clean-outs.
When improper connections are found, property owners will be asked to allow qualified local plumbers, paid by the City, to make the repairs.
“When conducting smoke testing in this neighborhood in July, we detected quite a few deficient sewer connections,” says program coordinator Everett Kelley. “We thank the residents and business owners in the area for their cooperation during sewer smoke testing and for their willingness to partner with us in this next step to improve the sewer system in their neighborhood.”
Smoke testing is part of the City’s Private Sewer Repair Program which helps identify sanitary sewer defects on private property which can be fixed at no cost to the property owner. The program is one part of the City’s $300 million Supplemental Overflow Control Plan to continue reducing sanitary sewer overflows in Springfield’s aging sewer system over the next 15 years. The City’s original Overflow Control Plan was approved by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in 2015 with the supplemental plan approved in 2021.
“We have found that for every dollar spent on this program, our sewer customers save more than $11 in capacity improvements,” said Environmental Services Director Errin Kemper. “Much of this investment goes back into our local economy through our contracts with local plumbing companies.”
To learn more about the Private Sewer Repair Program, visit springfieldmo.gov/privatesewerrepair, call 417-874-1295 or email [email protected].
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For more information, contact Communication Coordinator Kristen Milam at 573-819-3713 or [email protected].