Wastewater Maintenance

Utilities Operations Division

The Utilities Operations Division provides for all aspects of installation, operation, and maintenance of the water distribution system and the wastewater collection, the Five Year Capital Improvement Plan system, plus other special services to other divisions. This includes responding to thousand of customer service requests yearly.

  1. Sewer Line Maintenance
  2. Sewer Repair & Rehabilitation
  3. Sewer Outfalls and Right-of-Way
  4. Lift Station Maintenance

The Town of Boone has over 121 miles of gravity sewer mains, ranging in size from 4” to 30”. A variety of preventative maintenance tasks are undertaken to keep these lines functioning properly. Most residential mains are 8” lines that represent the majority of lines in the system. Most problems that affect the operation of sewer lines are either structurally related, caused by root intrusion into joints or are caused by grease introduced into the lines. Sewer lines can become blocked due to grease buildup in the pipes that cause debris such as rags, paper towels, and diapers to become trapped in the pipe and create a blockage. When this occurs, wastewater is stopped by the blockage and wastewater flows backwards toward the first possible outlet, thus creating a sanitary sewer overflow (SSO).

Sanitary sewer overflows are sewage spills that occur when wastewater collection pipes are blocked or restricted, causing wastewater to back up in the pipe and flow out through manholes. Most sanitary sewer overflows are relatively small and can be stopped and cleaned up quickly. Left unattended, however, sanitary sewer overflows can result in property damage, foul odors, environmental problems and can harm our wildlife. In a worst-case scenario, they can create public health and safety hazards. The Town of Boone is required by law to report all sanitary sewer overflows that reach surface waters or are in excess of one thousand gallons to the Division of Water Quality. Sanitary sewer overflows are not a new problem in our community or in any other, but our goal continues to be zero overflows. It’s our job to keep the community’s wastewater collection and treatment systems in good working order, and we will continue to invest time and resources to prevent sanitary sewer overflows.