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NEWPORT — Citywide notices of routine sewer cleaning and maintenance came a few weeks too late for some Newport residents.
Since the cleaning and maintenance began April 14, at least six have reported noises from their drainage, water backing up in their bathrooms or water coming up through their toilets. One poster on Facebook wrote April 28 that their “entire bathrooms” were sprayed down by toilet water.
“My whole house smells like toilet water,” the poster wrote. “And all my towels and my walls and my subflooring are all soaked with toilet water.”
Others commented on the post with their own complaints. Most residents had not been notified of the cleaning and maintenance, including the few whose homes sustained water damage.
“Thankfully my lids were closed,” one commenter wrote. “The only warning I got was this post and another person complaining about it last week.”
In partnership with the city, Big Sky Industrial is jetting, cleaning and cameraing all the sewer mains in Newport to do “an overall assessment citywide of the state of the collection system,” city administrator Abby Gribi said.
Funded by the Washington State Department of Ecology, the cleaning and maintenance will identify the wastewater collection system’s most problematic areas for improvement over the next several years, Gribi said.
“It’s scoping out the projects,” Gribi said. “It’s giving us an idea of where we’re getting lots of infiltration and intrusion of groundwater into the sewers, which then affects the plant.”
Big Sky is scheduled to perform the cleaning and maintenance through June 20 from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with some variation depending on the day and location.
The pressure from the cleaning can suck out toilet water or make it bubble up, Gribi said, especially if a bathroom’s infrastructure is old, improperly ventilated or contains blockages.
While the wastewater collection system is not as dirty as the city expected, “lots and lots” of root intrusions are causing issues with the cleaning, Gribi said at the Newport City Council’s May 5 meeting. Until a secondary crew with the equipment to remove the root intrusions does so, Big Sky is forced to clean the next sewer main on their schedule, hence the notification delay.
“It just was a quick turnaround, and then we weren’t expecting the amount of roots that we’re running into,” Gribi said. “So as the contractor jumped forward, we weren’t able to get the notifications out.”
Prior to April 14, the city posted on Facebook about the cleaning and maintenance April 9 and sent notices with last month’s utility bill. They have since posted again April 21 and 29, sent additional notices with this month’s utility bill and left doorknob flyers on Newport residences. A notice is also on the homepage of the city’s website at newport-wa.org.
“We’re in line now so that we’re getting longer projection times,” Gribi said. “So that we can make sure that we can get those out and that we’re getting everyone notified.”
According to notices from the city, residents may experience water leaks or splashing, temporary equipment disturbances, mild odors, minor traffic congestion or gurgling and other “unusual” drain noises. The city advises residents to close toilet lids, place towels around toilets, remain alert to traffic congestion and open sewer cleanouts, if the residence has one.
Residents whose homes sustain water damage can file a tort claim for compensation by contacting Newport City Hall at 509-447-5611 or [email protected]. At 200 S. Washington Ave., Newport City Hall is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
