Sewer Lateral Inspection

Well, the short answer is it’s an inspection of the pipe that carries the sewage away from the building. For three out of four homes in Pennsylvania, that means the sewer piping running from the house to the sewer main. Generally, we refer to those homes connecting to a sewer main piping as having a “public sewer”. For a quarter of Pennsylvania homes, sewage is treated right on the lot and the water is returned to the ground there. This type of system is usually referred to as an onsite or septic sewer system. In an onsite system the sewer lateral is the pipe running from the home to the septic tank. In both public and onsite systems, the piping can be the same material and the installers generally followed the same piping codes. However, different governmental agencies may have jurisdiction over these two different systems. The local municipality generally oversees those systems on public sewer, but it may be different for onsite systems. For example, in Chester and Montgomery Counties, onsite systems are administered by the County Health Departments. That difference shouldn’t affect how a sewer lateral inspection is carried out or what issues an inspector is looking for, but it may affect who is authorized to conduct such inspections.

For efficiency, and especially because in the southeast part of Pennsylvania, few homes have septic systems, I will focus on buildings connected to public sewer mains in our discussion. We can come back to onsite systems later, if you wish. Okay?

Well, most of the time the sewer main is in the street, but they don’t have to be. They can run anywhere. And, we should get one more distinction out of the way. The sewer main is public and is typically owned by some part of the local municipality. As you suggested, often that public sewer main is located in a public space, such as a street. Now, in the process of a sewer lateral running from a home to the public sewer main, it usually has to leave the home property and travel into a public space like a road, and sometimes even cross someone else’s private property. Therefore, the question is often asked how much of the sewer lateral do you, as the homeowner, own? Are you responsible for it once it leaves your property? If it’s broken under the street, is that your problem? Well, the answer is, it depends. It depends on what your municipality has decided it will be. However, in most places in Southeast Pennsylvania, the homeowner is responsible for the sewer lateral from the building all the way to the main. Building owners should check with their local municipality to be sure, but generally that’s the case. Contractors who specialize in sewer lateral work can also tell you the rules of your community. Whatever part of the piping the homeowner is responsible for is called the “private” sewer lateral. In the trade, we often abbreviate that to PSL

Middletown Township in Delaware County is an example. There, the Township takes responsibility for the sewer lateral from the main to the house trap. So, the private sewer lateral is the part from the house out to the house trap only.

I’ll keep it simple. All your plumbing fixtures have a bend in their drain pipe which is a dip deep enough to create a section of the drain that is always full of water. This plug of water traps the air in the drain piping so that sewer air can’t come out the fixture drain opening and stink up your inside air. Most, but not all the sewer laterals in SE Pennsylvania have a similar trap built into them. This is the house trap. The original waste piping design allowed air to move freely within the main drain piping of the home. There is even an air vent piped out through the roof that connects to the drainage system. If there is a house trap, there is another air vent just on the house side, or upstream, of the house trap. You don’t really have to worry about how it was supposed to work. Just know that when the house trap is buried in the ground, the vent pipe from it is extended up to ground level. If the house trap is in the basement, the vent is piped to the outside. Typically, in the counties surrounding Philadelphia the house trap was buried outside. As you go north into the Lehigh Valley, you’ll find more house traps installed in the basement. For the buried traps in the Philly area counties, the vent was piped up to ground level and the top of that vent pipe was covered by a cap with a grille in it or had a rounded mushroom style cap. Both types of caps let air go in and out. But the water seal in the house trap never allows the gases from the sewer main itself to vent out. The trap vent which we can see at ground level is usually how we know where the house trap is buried in the Greater Philadelphia area.

I want to add that the house trap doesn’t quite work the way we thought it did and, in most codes, it is no longer required. That includes the Pennsylvania state code. So, in most places, if the old trap needs to be removed for any reason a new one is not reinstalled. That’s a plus for the homeowner because traps can sometimes cause problems. However, some municipalities still require them. Among other things, those municipalities believe they serve a function of being a spill-out point should the sewer main ever back up. That wasn’t their original purpose but they can provide that function. If the trap vent is lower than any plumbing fixture in your home, then a backup in the sewer main would pour out at the trap vent before it pushed up through your higher-elevated toilet or tub. However, let’s not complicate this at the moment. The code has other provisions for such risks and preventing main sewer overflows is one of the reasons that municipalities are starting to require sewer lateral inspections. Therefore, let’s just leave it that most homes in SE Pennsylvania have a whole house trap and in the nearby Philly suburbs they are usually outside and can be located by the vent that comes up to ground level. We’re going to come back to this vent later because if it is flush with the ground or the sidewalk, it can allow pooling rainwater to drain into it and that is no good. You can imagine that in a big storm if lots of rainwater ran down lots of trap vents then the sewer main would run out of space to handle it all and so either push the extra rain and sewage out of a manhole, or worse, push it up the sewer lateral into the home at the bottom of the hill where the pressure is greatest. Neither is very pleasant and both are fineable offenses for the sewer authority and they are both examples of why some municipalities now require sewer lateral inspections.

Oh, sorry. That’s easy. In the greater Philly area, it was a tradition to put the house trap right near the curb. It was so common that our industry called them curb traps. Many in the Philly area still refer to them as curb traps even when they’re placed pretty far up the lawn away from the curb. But house traps and curb traps are the same thing.

Yes! Good job! Since you have such a great grasp on things, let me just add two small clarifications. They’re really kind of legalese stuff but they are important to make sure a client is getting what they want and maybe, just as importantly, not more than they want. It has to do with where exactly things start and end and that different trades in our industry have different names for the same thing. Let’s start with the traditional lingo.

If you think of a municipal sewer engineer laying out a whole new sewer system, he or she starts at the end, which is the sewage treatment plant. From there they run trunk lines out into the community, branching those main lines into smaller and smaller pipes to cover the whole community and supply a connection for every home. The plumber piping up a new home starts at the other end of the system. He/she lays out the plumbing drains so that small drains combine into bigger drains and they all tie in together into one pipe that drains the whole house and ties into the connection that the engineer made for the home. The plumber and the homeowner and the drain cleaner all see the connection at the sewage collecting pipe as the end of their concern and they call that bigger pipe the sewer main and the pipe from the house to that main we all call the sewer lateral. It is what we are calling it now in our discussion here. However, from the municipal engineer’s point of view, the sewer main is the main sewer trunk line and he calls the smaller sewer mains branching off of it, the sewer laterals. The piping dedicated to your home alone, he refers to as your home’s sewer service. The engineer’s sewer service is the same as the plumber’s sewer lateral. Since realtors, and homeowners typically use the term sewer lateral as well, that is what we will use here for clarity.

Pretty much, everyone calls it the sewer lateral unless you’re having a conversation with a sanitary design engineer or a contractor who only works on the public sewer piping. So use the term sewer lateral and you’ll be fine. However, there is one final term clarification we need to cover and that is what technically is a drain and what technically is a sewer.

The State of Pennsylvania and most municipalities in the state use the International Plumbing Code to govern how your home plumbing system should be piped. By definition, that code divides a home’s waste water piping into two categories – drains and sewers. All the piping WITHIN the home that carries off the waste from the plumbing fixtures are called drains. So the piping under your kitchen sink that carries off the water is a drain. The same for the piping from the toilet and the tub. Those drains join together as the piping runs down through the house and towards the outside and they’re all called drains by the plumbing industry because they’re all within your home. Typically, all the drains join into one 4” waste line before the piping leaves the house. Sometimes a building has more than one drain pipe leaving it and in that case they usually join and become one pipe outside underground. When the public sewer main was constructed, they typically left just one connecting tap for every lot. So, if multiple pipes did leave the house, they connected together into a common line before they tied into the sewer main. Once the piping leaves your home it’s called a sewer.

By code definition, the “sewer” part of the piping doesn’t begin until 30” outside of the exterior wall. So, per code, the pipe carrying all the sewage from the home is a drain when it’s in the basement or under the slab in a ranch house. It is still called a drain as it goes through the exterior wall or foundation and it continues to be a drain until it is 30” outside the exterior of the house. Then by code definition it becomes a sewer. However, when plumbers, drain cleaners, homeowners, realtors and municipal inspectors refer to your sewer lateral they typically mean from the exterior wall out. They don’t follow the 30” guideline. If a municipality mandates a sewer lateral inspection, they typically mean from the exterior wall out. The township ordinance usually has a section of definitions and there they will define exactly what they mean by the term sewer lateral. When a homeowner or home buyer wants a sewer lateral inspection, they usually want all the buried piping that can be accessed inspected. They want to continue the video inspection up into the house for as far as the camera can be pushed into the main drain pipe if it’s buried under a floor. In summary, a municipal-mandated sewer lateral inspection includes all the exterior piping considered part of the private sewer lateral (PSL). Most of the time the PSL is all the piping from the building to the sewer main. I hope that’s all clear to you.

To be clear, the only time you NEED a sewer inspection at all is when some governmental authority tells you you need to do it. Right now, in Winter of 2020-21 in SE Pennsylvania that is only in a few municipalities and typically only when a home is sold. In those cases, a sewer lateral inspection may be required before the new owner can occupy the house.

Because people throw terms around too easily and I want to be clear here so no one feels stampeded into spending money when they don’t need to or they don’t want to. There are times when a homeowner would WANT a sewer inspection. Typically, he/she sees a leak coming through a wall or ceiling, or has had multiple back-ups, or has a constant wet spot or perhaps a sink hole in the yard, or maybe they’re planning a renovation and they want to make sure the piping they’re going to tie into is okay. In all those cases, the needs of the homeowner determine the scope of the inspection. And while we may call it a sewer lateral inspection, we know that by definitions it may actually be a drain inspection, a sewer inspection, or a drain and sewer inspection. Sometimes realtors will suggest to a home buyer that they should have the sewer lateral inspected so they don’t find they’re on the hook for a big unexpected expense after they move in and find an issue. In those cases, we’re probably talking about a sewer AND drain inspection rather than just a sewer inspection because the concern is about avoiding a surprise expense. That surprise could be under the basement floor, as well as under the front lawn. That is it could be the drain or the sewer.

That is completely different from a sewer lateral inspection mandated by a municipality.

Let’s talk about a homeowner or home buyer requested inspection because that is easier. It’s simple because the scope of the inspection is defined by the homeowner or home buyer who wants it. People who do sewer and drain work for a living know what the common issues are and they know what replacements and repairs costs are. Typically, we are talking about a contractor using a camera that is designed for videoing the inside of pipes to inspect the sewer and drain lines. Most of the time that means running the camera through a pipe that is four to six inches in diameter.

No, not for small short lines typically found in residential piping. When the municipalities need to video the big mains in the street, they need complicated cameras that can move on their own and where the camera head can move about to look at things better. For the smaller four through six-inch piping that would service a home, the camera is much simpler. It is a camera head mounted on the end of a flexible but somewhat stiff fiberglass push rod. There’s a range of cameras made for the trade because the further you want to push the camera and the bigger the pipe you want to push the camera through, the stiffer the push rod needs to be. However, the stiffer the push rod is, the less likely it will make it around a bend in the pipe. So it’s a balance. A contractor buys the camera that most matches the type of work he does. He may even need to have more than one camera. If he has the right camera he can push it through all the piping that needs to be inspected – assuming of course that the pipe isn’t clogged up or broken. But if the pipe has an issue, identifying it is one of the purposes of the inspection.

Not necessarily. Especially not if the inspection is for the homeowner’s own needs. The homeowner wants to see things as they are. If there are a lot of roots in the line causing the drain to back-up, then you would want to see how much roots and where they are before doing any cleaning. If you do a thorough cleaning and remove all the roots and then video the pipe, you won’t get a true picture of your situation. Cleaning after a video and then re-videoing the pipe may make sense because the cleaning may reveal some issues that were hidden before. It would probably make more sense to you if we jumped back into the types of inspections which we define based on why someone is requesting a video.

Well, probably as many as there are sewer issues. But I would break them up into three basic types based on what drives the inspection request. First, there is the inspection for the homeowner who’s trying to troubleshoot a problem. That’s pretty straight forward. There’s no official format. There sre no concerns on legalistic language. It’s just someone knowledgeable about sewers and drains, with a good camera, and experience in interpreting what they’re seeing, seeking the truth. When you’re just in the pursuit of a problem, the scope of work is determined naturally. You run out the camera and maybe use the locator and try to figure out what’s going on. Knowing that a solution is going to be based upon your diagnostics, makes one take it a little slower and look a little harder and a little longer to make sure they’ve got it right. Maybe they spend more time locating where issues are or how the piping runs so they can put together the best solution. No one wants to spend their time and a client’s money only to have a problem they thought they solved re-appear. So the inspector may spend significant time investigating to make sure they understand all the variables involved.

Many sewer cameras a contractor would use for a home inspection have a signal transmitter behind the camera head that can be turned on. So whenever the inspector wants to know where something he is looking at is, he can turn on the transmitter and locate where the camera head is with a signal receiver. It will even tell him how deep it is. The inspector can even track the entire route of a buried pipe if he needs to.

The second type of inspection is for a home buyer. It is similar to the first type in that the home buyer is interested in not just the facts but also in what they mean for the future use of the plumbing. So interpretation of issues is important. Most of the sewer laterals in SE Pennsylvania are over 40 years old. Many are over 70 years old. Over time, pipes like people accumulate physical deficiencies. Maybe there is some shifting or scaling up. But that doesn’t mean that the things need to be fixed. The home buyer wants to know all the issues and then needs an interpretation of the likelihood of them causing a blockage or something else that will cause them to spend money on it in the future. The home buyer needs an interpretation of the facts because within their negotiations with the seller, there may be some issues they won’t accept and others they will. For example, there could be an offset at a joint. What problems that may cause depends on how much of an offset it is, whether the offset is horizontal or vertical, and if it is vertical, whether the downstream pipe is higher or lower. So the first two types of inspections are similar in that the inspector needs to put any issues into context so people can make the right decisions on how to spend their money.

The third type of inspection is one that’s required by a municipality. Typically, this would be required as part of a real estate sale. Usually the seller is paying for this required inspection and because the seller is leaving the home, the seller wants to incur the minimum amount of expense possible. So for this inspection, the inspector has to very clearly understand what the municipality has as their requirements. He has to be very clear what is a pass and what is a fail as determined by the municipality, and not what the inspector may personally think is right or wrong. The inspector has to stay up to date because a municipality’s requirements may change over time as the municipality reacts to pressures from their residents as well as other public agencies including state and federal organizations. The best way to understand this is to take a moment and switch focus to what ultimately is driving a municipality to require a sewer inspection in the first place. Most people are surprised to learn that it is not because the municipality wants to make sure the sewer line is carrying off the sewage from the home. It is not that they want to be sure that when a toilet is flushed, everything goes down the drain. It is way more complicated than that and starts at a much higher government level.

To understand where these requirements come from we have to step back a bit and see the bigger picture. Sewage as a health danger has been known for hundreds of years. So the original goal for a community was to get it away from themselves. When communities were small and spread out, they could always dump their waste downstream from where they wanted to get their own drinking water from. When the amount of waste was small and it was a long distance downriver to the next community, that could work okay. But as communities grew and filled in the unpopulated areas between them, it became increasingly hard to find an empty place downstream to dump an increasingly lot of waste. The federal government was empowered through The Clean Water Act and created the EPA to sort these things out. Any facility discharging wastewater needs a federal permit. All permits are written to ensure that the waters being dumped into will still meet water quality standards. Working with the EPA is the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) who in turn works with municipalities, sewer authorities, and other organizations to protect Pennsylvania’s air, land and water from pollution and to provide for the health and safety of its citizens through a cleaner environment.

In Delaware County in the 1930s, communities were still dumping their raw sewage into local creeks. During the Great Depression the Federal Government offered to put people to work extending those local waste pipes to the Delaware River if the communities joined together to create area sewer authorities. Sewer authorities are a type of governmental unit created specifically to deal with constructing, maintaining and operating parts of sewer systems. They may be specific to a single community or cover multiple communities. Today the Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority (DELCORA) operates and maintains collection systems that serve half a million people from 42 municipalities. Research they’ve carried out shows that about one third of the water that they receive in their sewer mains is in fact not sewage but clear rain and ground water. That is a waste of money and energy and risks situations where sewage could spill into the environment. If rainwater can get into the sewer system then at some point a storm will be big enough that the sewer system will not be able to handle all of that extra rain water. That extra water can cause sewer mains to overflow or could overwhelm the sewage treatment plant. In both cases the extra rain water and the sewage mixed with it are going to spill into the environment somewhere. It might be at a creek or into the Delaware River, but it could also be out of a manhole in some neighborhood or even into someone’s basement. It is a messy disgusting situation and the sewer authority is fined for any such events. So it is really important that only sewage gets into the sewer system. Rain and ground water need to be kept out. But how do you go about accomplishing that?

In 2008 DELCORA received a grant from Pennsylvania to study the problem. They assembled an advisory team of 64 professionals to help. In 2010 they produced a report titled, “Private Lateral Inflow and Infiltration Elimination Project”. The report suggested municipalities begin inspecting private sewer lateral for illegal connections and defects which allowed CLEAR water into the sewer system. This would not only save their communities the money spent treating the clear water but it would also give the system extra capacity to handle growth in the communities. Even if a reduction plan wasn’t perfect, every source of rainwater removed meant that at least it would take a bigger storm to cause raw sewage to spill onto streets or into basements.

By the way, if you read anything about this issue you will run across two industry terms again and again. These terms describe how clear water gets into the sewer system. Inflow is rain or ground water that is intentionally put into the sewer. The most common example of this would be a basement sump pump discharging into a sewer pipe instead of dumping the water outside on the grass or into a storm drainage system. The other term is infiltration. Infiltration is rain or ground water that enters the sewer system through defects. The most common example of this is a broken pipe underground that allows clear ground water to pour into the sewer system. Together these two terms are referred to as “I&I”. They are the targets of the sewer authorities who push the municipalities to act to reduce them. When a municipality creates a requirement to inspect a sewer, the driving force behind it is not whether a homeowner can flush a toilet with confidence. It is the reduction of I&I. So, a township-mandated sewer inspection will look very different than one a homeowner requests to find a problem or one that a home buyer might request to avoid hassles and expenses after they move in.

In SE Pennsylvania, only a small percentage of municipalities have enacted ordinances requiring private sewer lateral (PSL) inspections, but many others are talking about doing the same. In many other parts of the state where sewer authorities have had worse problems than SE Pennsylvania has seen, PSL inspections began years ago and their pass/fail criteria were much tougher than we’ve seen here in the SE. In the effort to clean up the Chesapeake Bay, much attention has already been given to Pennsylvania communities within the Susquehanna River watershed. That watershed covers half of the land area of Pennsylvania. The Southeast part of the state is really playing catch-up on this issue. But it is an issue that is not going away. Makes sense?

No. They vary greatly from place to place. Not just in the scope of the inspection but also in how results are processed and what is a pass and what’s a fail. Some municipalities do the inspections with municipal employees while others have independent contractors do them. If contractors are used, the municipality may have a licensing or a certification requirement. There are many differences. And don’t forget we also have the issue over defining where the private sewer lateral actually begins and ends. The state code defines it as beginning 30” outside the home. The municipality’s ordinance may define it differently. Most of the time the inspection does not include piping in the interior of the home, even if that piping is buried under a basement floor.

Usually inspection ordinances start out focused exclusively on I&I. They aren’t begun to assess how well the sewer line will work for the homeowner. But a new homeowner usually has expectations about how well things will work if the home they just bought has passed some type of sewer lateral inspection. Knowing that, a municipality will often broaden its required inspection to include some assessment of the line’s serviceability to the homeowner. But of course, the devil is always in the details. Are you going to permit roots getting into the line? Are they a fail or a maintenance issue? Is a little offset in the piping okay? What about if the sewer lateral has a belly in it? Is that okay? A lot of these terms are used for issues that run from minor to major. When the municipality mandates an inspection then they usually have to also define at what level an issue becomes a mandatory repair. It can be very difficult for the municipality because they know their pass/fail is going to cost some people significant money and so they struggle hard to draw the line fairly. It’s not easy.

Well, right now, most municipalities do not require a sewer inspection and for those that do require it, the requirement is enacted only when someone is selling their home. Typically, a municipality will have all the information you need on their website. Nonetheless, you’ll probably find your realtor an easier source of information since there are generally multiple things you need to get done for a home sale and the sewer inspection will just be one more that your realtor will be familiar with. Even in communities where a sewer inspection is required, they usually have exemptions if the sewer has been previously replaced within a number of years or the home had a sewer inspection previously within a certain number of years. A sewer inspecting contractor would know all that, as well. Just be aware that in an inspection mandated by the municipality, the inspector is primarily looking to see whether there is any I&I present in the outside piping only.

Well, nothing’s perfect. You can’t expect the municipality to take the responsibility for everything working right. It’s still the homeowner’s or rather, the home buyer’s responsibility to do their due diligence. The municipality has an impossible job. They need to write up very specific requirements for piping so everything is fair, but that piping is part of all kinds of different homes with all kinds of fixtures with a wide range of the number of occupants who have a wide range of plumbing use habits. It is impossible to draw a line so it’s right and fair for every household. Therefore, in addition to the municipal requirements, hopefully the inspecting plumber is given a chance to give his or her personal evaluation based on their own experience.

To a point. Things are designed and originally installed according to the plumbing code. Over time though things deteriorate and at some point they need to be fixed for the system to keep working right. If you’re selling a home then pretty much your only concern is what the Township or Borough requires. You’re leaving and you’re not going to get any of the benefit from upgrades, so you just want to do what is required. However, if you are living in the house, when do you decide to spend money to deal with an issue? People don’t treat their sewer piping like they do their kitchen cabinets. The cabinets are right in front of them. If a door is sagging they probably want to fix it even though you can still open and close it. You’re aware that the hinge has aged and is failing and you want it fixed. You don’t wait until you can’t open the cabinet to deal with it. It’s different with your sewer pipes. As long as they’re working you ignore them. – and I don’t think that’s wrong. Life is short and while your sewer pipes are more critical than your kitchen cabinet door, I’m not advocating proactively worrying about your sewer. Chances are, if your home is more than 50 years old and you videoed your piping, you would find a number of imperfections. Do you care? Generally, not. If the sewage keeps flowing out to the main then what do you care that the pipe is less than perfect? Do a few offsets or a belly in the piping matter? Not if the piping continues to move the home’s sewage to the main.

Identifying an issue is not the biggest challenge. Putting that issue into some context for the homeowner or home buyer so they can decide based on their own risk and comfort analysis is the trick. Let me give you an example. Here is a sketch I made of two identical homes; one on either side of a street which runs along a hill. (See sketch below.) The house on the left sits on top of a hill and the one on the right is level with the street. Let’s say that they both have an offset in their piping right before the main sewer. Paper catches on the offsets and it builds up to a clog that prevents the water from getting through. Because of the differences in elevations above the sewer main, they’ll likely have very different outcomes. The house on the right, level with the street, will have a mess to clean up when the toilet in the first-floor powder room overflows. However, the house on the hill across the street with the same clog in the same place has no problem at all. Why? Because the blockage is cleared before the water has a chance to overflow in the house. The blockage is cleared because before the water can rise high enough to overflow it will weigh 20 pounds and that is a lot of pressure – generally more than enough to push the clog free. The homeowner on the hill won’t even know he/she has an issue.

For a municipality to be fair, they are going to pass or fail on the defect alone. If they decide that an offset is a fail, then in our example both homes will have to fix the problem. However, an experienced plumber will base his or her decision not on the defect alone but on how the issue affects the flow in that home’s system. In our example, the plumber will tell the homeowner on the right to fix the problem, while telling the homeowner on the left, not to bother. Does that make sense? Do you see the different situations that the municipality and the plumber are in?

Well, that depends. Are you looking for information for your own interest? Are you a home buyer who wants to avoid any sewer surprises in your new home? Are you thinking of selling your home and you want to make sure no issues will be exposed on a future home inspection? Are you selling a home and the municipality you live in requires a sewer lateral inspection for the new owners to get a U&O to move in? The same inspector should be able to do any of them. You just need to clearly communicate what you want. To be realistic about it, if you’re selling a home and the municipality requires an inspection of your sewer lateral, you don’t want the inspector going beyond the sewer lateral as defined by the local ordinance. If the plumber does and the plumber finds an issue, now you’re obliged to report it. If the local ordinance says inspect the outside piping but the inspector runs the camera into the basement, finds an issue, and puts it in the report, that’s doing wrong to the homeowner who is the client. The inspector needs to follow the ordinance exactly and be truthful in complying with it. He can’t skip a part, but he also shouldn’t add a part and put the seller in a position of more liability because the home seller is his client. On the other hand, if the client is the home buyer, the inspecting plumber should realize that even though the client has used the term sewer inspection, they probably want as much of the buried sewer and drain piping evaluated as possible.

The equipment and the process might be the same from place to place, but the evaluation is different. It makes a big difference whether you want to know all you can or you’re just trying to be in conformance with a regulation. Let’s say that you’ve been living in your home for a few years and you’re thinking about adding a ground level deck with a nice spa on it. However, your sewer lateral runs right under where you’re planning to put your deck. Maybe you’d like to see the condition of that piping while it’s still easy to access. The best thing then is to watch the monitor while the technician runs the camera and talk about what you’re seeing. You can discuss any issue and all the what ifs scenarios. Ask away! “What is that?” “Will that affect my flow?” “What are my options if I wanted to fix that?” “What happens if I don’t do anything?”, etc. You can choose to run the camera through any piping you wish. Run it under the floor or down a wall or across the ceiling. Information is power and your knowing more allows you to better plan and spend your money wisely.

On the other hand, if the inspection is for a real estate sale and is mandated by the Township, you probably want to do EXACTLY what is required and nothing more. If the Township requires the piping be examined from the foundation of the house out, then you probably don’t want to video under the floor or anywhere in the building because you don’t want to look for trouble. You want to inspect only what’s required and you only care about anything that is a failure by the Township’s regulations and not things which pass but could be better. Finally, if you’re a potential home buyer you want as much videoed as possible and you want the plumber to use his judgement to expand the search if he sees something not right.

No. They actually vary quite a lot. Why don’t we go down a list of each municipality and talk about them separately. We’ll start with municipalities in Delaware County.

First, know that Delaware County is serviced by a huge sewer authority commonly known as DELCORA (Delaware County Regional Water Quality Control Authority). They oversee the waste from about a half a million people in the Delaware County area, including 42 municipalities. They began monitoring how the flows from different areas changed during a storm in 2004. In 2008 they received a grant from the PA DEP to study the problem of non-sewage or clear water getting into their system from private sewer laterals (PSL). They assembled an impressive Municipal Advisory Team of 64 knowledgeable individuals and in June 2010 published their findings under the title of “Private Lateral Inflow and Infiltration Elimination Project Summary Report”. That report can be accessed at:

http://www.wefppvl.org/WEF-PPVL-library/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/PPRR_Delcora_PA_Lateral_II_Report-Final_June_30_2010.pdf

They also produced a ten-minute video. It’s well done and really worth the time to watch it to get a better understanding of the whole I&I issue within Delaware County. It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=827Xx-Cyt7A

You should check both of these resources out because they are very thorough and they were put together under the guidance of local experts and they were financed by your tax dollars.

One of the report’s recommendations (8.2.4) was that “Municipal-licensed plumbers would be certified after attending a course held by the municipality. The course would cover the municipality’s lateral inspection program, instructions on completing the lateral inspection forms, description of what is expected from visual inspection, education about types of lateral defects, and education on general repair methods. The plumbers would be required to take and pass a test on what they have learned and to prove that they possess a valid business license.” This recommendation is just one of many pressures that have been brought to bear on local municipalities to take some action to reduce the I&I originating from their residents.

The Borough of Clifton Heights does not require a mandatory sewer inspection for resale or rental property inspections. In the course of their visual property inspections, an inspector may call for a sewer inspection if there is visual evidence of a defect. (sinkholes, lowered sidewalk blocks, etc.)

Concord Township has an ordinance (#338) that requires a sewer lateral inspection before the resale of a property. That inspection is performed by Township personnel.

East Lansdowne Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Edgemont Township requires property owners (both residential and non-residential) connected to the public sewer in their public sewer district to have a sewer lateral inspection when they sell their property. Homeowners can check a map on the Township’s website to see if they lie within that district. If they do, they should download an application and send it into the Township with a $250 payment for the permit. They should notify the Township at least 30 days prior to selling their homes to arrange this inspection. The homeowner needs to hire someone to do the video and the Township Building Inspector MUST be present to witness that the video to ensure it is done to Township standards. Having the Inspector on site to witness the video in non-negotiable. They will not accept a copy of the video if the Inspector was not there when it was done.

Glenolden Borough ordinance 2136 does require a video inspection of the sewer lateral on a home sale. The video must be done by one of the three companies the Borough has approved. More information can be found at:
https://www.glenoldenborough.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif5966/f/uploads/sewer_lateral_notice.pdf

Haverford Township does not require a sewer lateral inspection. It does require an inspection of common inflow sources such as sump pumps and floor drains to confirm that they are not connected to the sewer. They also require a backwater valve for any plumbing fixture that is located below street level.

Lansdowne Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Lower Chichester Township requires both a sewer lateral inspection and a smoke test before the resale of a property. A contractor does the testing and turns the results into the Township

Marcus Hook Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Marple Township does not require any sewer lateral inspections.

Media Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection at the time of a home sale.

Middletown Township has been very active in reducing the amount of ground and rain water entering their sewer system. They started by hiring an Inflow and Infiltration (I&I) Coordinator. One of his jobs is to do inspections of homes which are being sold. He checks for any inflow sources (connections to the sewer line that aren’t allowed, such as sump pumps or downspouts) as well as infiltration (places where rain or ground water can get into the sewer line because of broken or damaged piping). He does not do the sewer lateral video inspection but the team at the Township Sewer Authority does review it and they make all the final decisions about any corrective work that may need to be done.

Middletown Township Sewer authority has their own pages on the Township website and can be accessed here: https://middletowndelcopa.gov/sewer. They have a page which explains the Sewer Certification Program (https://middletowndelcopa.gov/index.asp?SEC=70C31AB4-45D0-4234-8259-7C302EDE108E&DE=CA08E9E5-12DD-4612-93C7-2A9C2DB18A9C) and at the bottom left of that page are links for related information and forms. The first link is to a form that a homeowner selling a house needs to fill out and send into the Township. The I&I Coordinator will then arrange with the homeowner to come out and do the required inspections. The homeowner then also needs to have a plumber come out and do a video inspection of the sewer line. That plumber needs to be certified for such work and on the bottom left of the Sewer Certification Program page is a link for a list of those certified. The plumber needs to follow Middletown’s protocol EXACTLY because Middletown Sewer Authority staff need to decide if any rehab work is required based on the plumber’s video alone. In order to ensure that they can clearly see what they need to see to render a good decision, they have specified requirements on the clarity, speed, and labelling of the video. If the video lacks the details the Sewer Authority needs to interpret the video, then the plumber will be required to redo the video inspection.

There are three important issues to remember regarding the I&I inspection process in Middletown:

(1) The process is very thorough and requires at least two weeks, so start the process early.

(2) The homeowner is only responsible for the PSL from the house to the house trap (often called the curb trap). In many surrounding townships, the homeowner owns the PSL all the way to the main.

(3) Once the homeowner has begun the process by submitting the “Lateral Inspection and Testing Application for Homeowners” form, the Township MUST see a video of the PSL before they will issue any permits for repairs or replacement of the PSL. They do this to ensure that an inspector doesn’t mislead a homeowner into thinking rehab work is required when it is not. They feel that since the Township mandated the inspection, the Township has a responsibility to protect the homeowner’s interests by making sure the inspection is done correctly and the same pass/fail criteria are being used in every review.

Millbourne Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection at the time of a home sale.

Morton Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection at the time of a home sale.

Nether Providence has a U&O checklist of 14 items. Number 13 is a sewer inspection as per their Ordinance 782. That ordinance states that it was passed at the suggestion of DELCORA and PA DEP. It covers definitions, inspection methods and requirements. The plumber doing the inspection must be certified by the Pennsylvania Plumbing, Heating, and Cooling Contractors (PA PHCC) Association or by the National Association of Sewer Service Companies (NASSCO). They have a four-page form that the inspector must fill out and turn in to the Township. To pass, there must be no illegal connections (Inflow) to the PSL such as sump pumps, down spouts, or outside drains and no sign of ground water leaking in (Inflow) or any of the pipe issues they have listed. The Township doesn’t need a copy of the sewer lateral inspection video. The inspecting contractor is fully responsible for getting it right as he/she has been through training and passed a test showing that he/she knows what the pass/fail criteria are.

The inspection includes the entire length of piping from the house to the main. If there is a trap vent, it must be at least 6” above grade unless they are in driveway apron or in a sidewalk and then they must be flush with finished grade and tightly sealed.

The homeowner is exempt from an inspection if the sewer lateral is less than 10 years old or if it had passed a PSL as part of a U&O requirement within the last 5 years.

If the U&O is for a condo or any building that shares a sewer lateral with another property, they have a stated process to follow to share the cost of any repairs.

The ordinance includes maintenance standards which include that the lateral must be kept free of anything that impedes flow (including roots and grease) and no water may leak in or out.

If 25% or greater of the lateral diameter is blocked, then the blocked section must be cleaned or replaced to pass the inspection.

Newtown Township has no sewer lateral inspection requirement.

Radnor Township does require a sewer lateral inspection as per their Ordinance 2017-11 before a Certificate of Occupancy will be issued. That inspection is performed by Township personnel. So the homeowner needs to contact the Township directly.

Ridley Township has no sewer lateral inspection requirement.

Rose Valley does require a sewer lateral inspection before resale of a property. If the development is less than 15 years old, a sewer lateral inspection is not required.

Rutledge Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection at the time of a home sale. They do require that the exterior sewer vent be capped and be at or above grade and watertight.
The ground above the sanitary sewer lateral extending the full length between the foundation of the house and connection to the sewer main must be free of sinkholes and potholes. If sinkholes or potholes are present, seller must provide proof through video inspection or other satisfactory method that the lateral is not allowing non-sewage water into the sewage collection system and/or leakage of sewer water out of the lateral.

Sharon Hill does have a sewer lateral inspection requirement as part of their U&O application. They want a copy of the video inspection with a report confirming that there are no breaks in the line.

Springfield Township (Delaware County) does not require any sewer lateral inspections as of 9/2020.

Swarthmore Borough has no sewer lateral inspection requirement unless there are any sinkholes or potholes present in the ground above where the sewer piping runs. If there is, then a video needs to be done to confirm there is not leakage coming into the sewer pipe or leaving the pipe.

Tinicum Township does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Trainer Borough does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Upper Borough does have a sewer lateral inspection requirement. A copy of the video inspection is turned in to be reviewed by the Borough inspector.

Upper Chichester Township does not require a sewer lateral inspection when a home is sold.

Upper Darby Township approved Ordinance #3070 in April 2020. This was at the beginning of the COVID pandemic and a lot of people weren’t paying as much attention to the whole process as they would have if it had passed as at a different time. It requires a sewer lateral inspection whenever a property is transferred to a new owner or the use of the property is changed. It requires an inspection of the sewer lateral and requires the inspector to note any deficiencies or defects that could permit inflow and infiltration, or any other prohibited substance from entering into the sanitary sewer, in violation of the Township’s Ordinances, or the rules and regulations of any local, state, or federal regulatory agency.

The inspecting plumber is to report any inflow and infiltration issues on Upper Darby’s own form titled “Upper Darby Township Department of Licenses & Inspections Sewer Lateral Inspection Certificate”. This is a relatively short, one-page form

It asks the following inflow questions:

Are any rain drains connected to the sewer?

Are any sump pumps connected to the sewer?

Was the sewer inspected trap to street?

Are there any roots in the sewer line? If yes, was cable run to clear?

Is the sewer line acceptable?

Was inspection recorded?

Is there any evidence of I&I?

Upper Providence Township has no sewer lateral inspection requirement.