What to do when there is a wastewater leak?

Not the most pleasant incident but just writing it down as a shout out to Sydney Water, thanking them for sorting it out.

I used to associate wastewater overflow with building work that has occurred at my parents' neighbouring property. It happened last year while they were putting in swimming pool and digging up backyard. Now the place had been on the market for months, it happened again. So maybe I was wrong.

Wastewater (sewer) overflow is cause by blockage in the pipe. Some signs of wastewater overflow include:

• toilet or drain making a gurgling sound (e.g. the gurgling made a tidal wave in the tiny space of a toilet bowl, as shown in picture)

• wastewater overflowing toilet or floor drain (e.g. dried overflow can look like soot, see picture of the shower floor)

• wastewater overflow near an outside tap

Overflow can happen during a storm. So you may or may not notice a minor leakage straight away. If you were not there to witness it as it happened, the overflow can recede and dry out. Leaving behind bad smell, black sludge (which attracts flies), and a lot of what looks like dried paper pulp (see pictures).

Whether you see the wastewater leak on your property in a public space, the first thing you do is call your municipal water authority. (For Sydneysiders, call Sydney Water fault line 13 20 90).

For your own health and safety, stay away from the affected area. Sewer waste contains pathogens. Don't try to clean it yourself! If the indoor residue (like the one near the shower drain) annoys you, just wash it down (e.g. by turning on the shower). Don't wipe it off. Unless you want to create more work for yourself having to disinfect everything that came into contact.

My experience dealing with Sydney Water was quite straight forward. Within a few hours, Sydney Water sends around an inspector to look at the issue and determine how best to access the sewer main that may be responsible for the leak. It could be from your property or from the neighbours'.

Later that day, Sydney Water sends around a fault detection team, with their equipment for locating any blockage in the sewer main network that potentially caused the overflow.

The day (or two days) after the blockage had been cleared, Sydney Water sends around another crew (could be the same crew as the fault detection team), to clean and disinfect any outdoor area affected by wastewater overflow.

After reporting the outdoor job done, if you reported any overflow inside the house and if the overflow is caused by blockage in their line, Sydney Water will send cleaners over to clean the affected area inside your house.

I want to commend Sydney Water for its efficiency. Glad the drama is over in around 3 days.

When do you call your own plumber?

• If after Sydney Water clear their blockage, but your toilet still makes gurgling sound; or

• If Sydney Water cannot locate any blockage using their equipment,

then it is time to call your own plumber.

Sydney Water is only responsible for the portion of wastewater pipe that is the company's property. Sydney Water's equipment is designed to locate blockage inside their own large diameter pipes. They are not designed to enter the smaller diameter wastewater pipe that belong to the property owner.

Repairing wastewater blockage can be a very costly exercise that is outside the scope of current discussion. The best advice is avoid throwing anything in the toilet or drain that should not go in there. Sydney Water has a good webpage with video on how best to avoid wastewater blockage. (https://www.sydneywater.com.au/plumbing-building-developing/plumbing/wastewater-blockages.html )

One thing I learnt from that webpage was don't just wash oil with hot water into the drain. Put it in a sealed container or grab it with tissue, and put it in the rubbish. Also use strainer to catch any food scrap or hair as these blocks wastewater system. Also the amount of paper pulp I saw in dried sewerage waste seem to suggest that even toilet paper can be hard to dissolve in the system, contrary to common belief.

I hope wastewater blockage drama never happen to you. But at least now you know how to deal with it if it ever happens.