Search on for illegal sewage system connections

By John Miner

South Huron staff will be searching for illegal connections to the municipality’s sanitary sewage system this year, a problem that contributed to raw sewage flowing into area water courses in 2025.

“It is a significant issue,” Don Giberson, South Huron’s infrastructure and development manager, told municipal council.

Illegal connections to the sanitary sewage system include roof drains, downspouts, sump pumps and tiles that have been connected to the sanitary system.

In South Huron, the infiltration into the sanitary system is 10 times higher than allowed for under Ontario guidelines for new sanitary sewer installations, Giberson said.

The program to find the illegal connections this year will include flow monitoring, dye testing and smoke testing. Staff have already done a historical review of South Huron’s collection system dating back to the 1940s and completed a database with video of all South Huron sewage collection mains.

South Huron’s wastewater collection system consists of about 67 kilometres of sanitary sewers and forcemains that transfer wastewater from Huron Park, Centralia, Crediton and Exeter to the South Huron wastewater treatment facility.

Alyssa Keller, South Huron’s environmental services manager, reported there were seven instances of raw sewage bypasses in 2025 that resulted in 8,940 cubic metres of raw sewage flowing into water courses in South Huron.

The bypasses all occurred during wet weather events when there was snowmelt, heavy precipitation or a combination of both.

The additional infiltration into the sanitary system from illegal connections uses up capacity that would otherwise be available for future development.

The additional inflow also requires the use of more chemicals for treatment and puts more wear and tear on the system’s sewer pumps, Keller said.

In 2025, the South Huron sanitary system experienced seven sewage pump failures at sewage pumping stations, according to the annual wastewater report submitted to council.

All of the pump failures were emergency failures that created the risk of basement flooding and sewage pumping station surcharges.

Keller said the failures show the need for a sewage pump maintenance program to proactively rebuild sewage pumps during periods of low flows versus reacting to emergency failures.