Arbor Heights alert: Smoke gets in your … drains

The city’s Neighborhood District Coordinator for West Seattle, Stan Lock, forwarded an alert about an unusual test in Arbor Heights (& White Center) next week:

NOTICESMOKE TESTING SEWER LINES

Seattle Public Utilities is conducting a smoke test of its sanitary sewer system.

Work crews will be in your area starting October 8, 2007 and are expected to complete this work by October 11, 2007.

The test will focus on the Arbor Heights and White Center neighborhoods.

A smoke test survey will assist our inspection crew in locating breaks and defects in our sewer system. The smoke you see coming from the vent stacks on houses or holes in the ground is NON-TOXIC, NON-STAINING, HAS NO ODOR, WHITE TO GRAY IN COLOR AND CREATES NO FIRE HAZARD.

The smoke should not enter your home unless you have defective plumbing or dried up drain traps.

It is advisable for the homeowner to pour a gallon of water into each floor drain prior to our testing. If smoke enters your home there is a good reason to assume that dangerous sewer gases may also be entering your home or business. You should evacuate immediately and notify our work crews. If you are not home and discover smoke when you return, please call us at 206-571-1532.

IMPORTANT! If there is any individual in your home or business who has respiratory problems and is immobile, please notify Seattle Public Utilities at 206-571-1532 prior to the start of testing.

1 Reply to "Arbor Heights alert: Smoke gets in your ... drains"

  • beef October 4, 2007 (1:46 am)

    wheee. nothing unusual about it. it’s a pretty cheap and easy way to determine where things are getting into the storm/sewer system. less infiltration into these systems the less water the county has to treat and the less your bills are!

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