Niverville’s town council recently reassessed their sewer and water policy, amending it to shift the financial burden of repairing and replacing connecting lines into the hands of property owners.
Sewer and water mains run throughout town. In the case of water, many of the businesses, homes, schools, and churches in newer developments, along Main Street, and along Fifth Avenue South are joined to the water main via connecting pipes. In the case of sewer, everyone in Niverville has connecting lines that link to the sewer mains.
It is these connecting lines, the ones running from the property owner’s structure to the sewer or water main, at which the amended policy is directed. As of April 1, the property owner will assume financial responsibility for all portions of the connecting lines, even the portions that run under public land.
As before, the town will continue to assume responsibility for all maintenance and repairs to the water and sewer mains.
These two separate utilities have not always been combined under one policy, as sewer was introduced to Niverville’s infrastructure long before water.
Understanding Niverville’s Sewer Policy
Niverville’s initial sewer lines were installed in 1971 following the town’s incorporation, allowing residents to upgrade from the septic fields and tanks located on their individual properties. During this time, a sewer line policy was created whereby the property owner accepted full responsibility for the installation, maintenance, and repair of their new connecting lines.
In the late 1990s, council was faced with at least one resident who experienced issues with their connecting line beneath the town’s asphalted street. The council of the day reassessed the community’s sewer line policy and amended it, shifting financial responsibility back to the town for connecting line repairs located on public property. Maintenance costs, such as blockages, remained the responsibility of the property owner.
That revised policy stood until now.
Since the initial sewer line installation in 1971, sidewalks and streets have been paved ubiquitously across town, and many connecting lines run beneath this infrastructure. With the change in policy reverting to its original intent, property owners should now expect that they will also be responsible for damage to ditches, sidewalks, and streets resulting from digging down to access their connecting lines should those lines require repair or replacement.
Two Main Street businesses have undergone major repairs to their sewer connecting lines in the past several years. In November 2014, tenants of 226 Main Street (the location of Anya’s Hair Studio) discovered sewer backups in their building, requiring their landlord to investigate the cause. After several attempts by a plumber to eliminate the blockage, a fracture was identified in the line near the point of connection to the sewer main beneath Main Street. Main Street underwent excavation in front of the building and the town repaired the fracture.
The same building underwent a nearly identical scenario just two years later, causing tenants to evacuate, or operate their business at a minimal level, until access to the sewer was restored. The landlord once again hired a plumber, who came to the same conclusion: there was another break in the line. Once again, the town excavated Main Street, and this time they replaced the connecting line right to the edge of the property.
In November 2016, the MCC Thrift Store, situated next door to 226 Main, experienced the very same issue. After MCC’s manager performed his due diligence to determine the cause, the town was made aware of the concern. Main Street was once again dug up and numerous fractures were located near the sewer main. The entire portion of the line beneath public property was replaced at the town’s cost.
JDX Construction, the company hired to conduct the repairs in all three of these instances, is no stranger to these issues, having repaired and replaced compromised sewer lines in communities across Manitoba.
“The Town of Niverville has sewer services from the 70s, and perhaps earlier, that are comprised of pipe made of asbestos concrete (AC),” says John Dyck of JDX Construction. “Some of these service pipes seem to be disintegrating, and quite rapidly. These concrete pipes are typically quite hard and dense, but in several repairs undertaken by myself in recent months, I’ve seen pipes that have the consistency of soft mush and are no longer able to withstand the pressure of the load they need to bear and [so they] simply collapse or are eaten away from the inside.”
John says that these AC sewer pipes are common in nearby towns. He has also encountered problems with pipes composed of clay tile and a heavily tarred pipe known as “no corrode.” These pipes, manufactured from the 50s to the 70s, are no longer used. Most communities have switched to relatively trouble-free PVC pipes. Therefore, structures erected after the 1970s are less likely to experience the kind of collapse John describes.
Many properties now have sturdier lines running from their building to the curb stop, located at the boundary of private and public property, but the original AC connecting lines often remain from the curb stop to the sewer main. Such was the case with the MCC Thrift Store, which had a cast iron line from the building to the curb stop and an AC line from the curb stop to the sewer main. It was in the AC line where their fractures occurred.
Many Manitoba cities or municipalities have long had sewer line policies that match Niverville’s newly amended policy. John Dyck notes that towns in the RM of Ritchot (St. Adolphe, Ste. Agathe, and Île-des-Chênes) are the exception rather than the rule, and they still run according to Niverville’s previous policy, with the municipality assuming responsibility for connecting lines that run beneath public property.
Understanding Niverville’s Water Policy
Like the sewer lines, the Town of Niverville will soon no longer cover the cost of repairs or replacement to connecting water lines on public property, regardless of the reason for the issue. This is where Niverville’s amended policy will diverge from the norm in Manitoba. According to John Dyck, the majority of municipalities and towns do assume responsibility for the water service located on public property.
John speculates that there is a reason most communities have different policies with respect to water and sewer connecting lines. He points out that the public utilities control the flow of water to homes and business, which is perhaps why they usually cover the costs of repairing or replacing those lines.
“[But] the public utilities have no control over what private individuals discharge into their own sewers,” John says, suggesting that there is thus some logic to passing on sewer line costs to property owners.
Service Line Insurance
In a recent town newsletter, Niverville’s council suggested that property owners might mitigate these risks by discussing water and sewer line insurance with their respective insurance agents.
“Within the past few years, most home insurance providers have started offering service line coverage to protect against this risk,” says Kris Moffat, an insurance broker with HUB International. “It’s a fairly minor fee that will cover repairs to a service line. Individuals should also carry sewer backup coverage to cover any resulting backup that occurs. Fees and charges vary amongst insurers.”
However, Moffat adds that this insurance is intended to cover unforeseen risks and losses. In cases where there appears to be a known problem or the use of obsolete materials, insurance is difficult to obtain.
For businesses, the likelihood of obtaining service line insurance is further reduced.
“For commercial insurance, I checked with a couple of our key markets and they do not offer [service line] coverage to businesses,” says Moffat.
With the recent sewer line collapses on Main Street, and with council’s amended policy following quickly in their wake, there is some concern that other properties may be affected by aging AC lines in the near future, and that property owners must now bear the financial responsibility for them.
Mr. Rooter, a Winnipeg-based plumbing and drain-cleaning service, says that sewer lines need not be dug up and replaced if the problem is caught in time. For homes or businesses with older sewer lines, options are available to shore up the line at a fraction of the cost.
Mr. Rooter uses a process called Cured In Place Pipe (CIPP). This involves a two-part epoxy resin which is attached to the inner wall of the original pipe, creating a seamless sleeve. It can be applied to a predetermined length of pipe. Though it does nominally decrease the diameter of the pipe, it’s not enough to affect the load capacity. On the contrary, flow is often improved because of its slick finish. While there are many factors to consider, it has been suggested that CIPP liners should last for decades.
“After a successful relining is done, our clients essentially have a brand-new sewer pipe,” says Julio Sylvestri of Mr. Rooter. “The relining alleviates future risk of roots, cracks, and possible collapse of the pipe.”
Sylvestri estimates that the average cost to reline a pipe is $7,000, which includes digging, concrete, piping, and liner up to about 30 feet. Compare this to the $15,000 that John Dyck estimates a sewer replacement can cost if asphalt or sidewalk restoration is required.
Town council has been in ongoing communication with the Chamber of Commerce about the issue.
“Discussions between Chamber [of Commerce] and council are ongoing,” says Mayor Myron Dyck, who adds that the Chamber has requested for the town to learn the full scope of the potential problem. Council has advised its staff to conduct further research. “This is somewhat reactive. We had these situations [and] we are trying to get a handle on what is going on. We’re trying to determine if this is local and a one-off, or do we have something that’s larger in scope?”
Mayor Dyck says that the town would like to bring up the subject with water line contractors to determine if there are any unique soil conditions on Main Street that have contributed to the recent cases of line collapse.
“We [used a camera in] a lot of the lines on the north side of the street,” Mayor Dyck says. “We’ve asked our operations manager to review those tapes so we can at least give some idea of probability.”
Ultimately, the town may not be in a position to finance a complete renewal of Main Street’s aging sewer lines, even if council changed its mind and decided not to amend their policy.
“There are finance constraints council has that are set out by the Public Utilities Board,” says Mayor Dyck. “They tell us that our utilities are self-serving entities and must function independently from the town’s general operating funds. Thus, the issue is one of finance. The pot of money that is to be used for sewer line replacement… would need to come from a sewer replacement reserve. Unfortunately, this fund has not been established and, as such, there is no money to pay [out].”
As for the three Main Street incidents that have already occurred, the town covered the cost by dipping into their sewer operating budget reserve. This reserve is intended for infrastructure such as sewer mains and phosphorus management of the lagoon.
