The Wastewater Operations Division maintains more than 100 pump stations and collection points, assists with stoppages, overflows, and cave-ins, and complete sewer mapping for the sewer lines in the city. The Division has more than 48,000 customers and maintains 103 pump stations, 420 miles of gravity mains, 38 miles of force mains, and more than 10,000 manholes in a 136-square-mile area. Wastewater Operations also assists with stoppages, overflows, and cave-ins and completes sewer mapping for the sewer lines in the city.
Sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is a condition in which untreated sewage is discharged from a sanitary sewer into the environment prior to reaching sewage treatment facilities.
There are two types of sanitary sewer overflows:
Infrastructure-related — due to blockage, line breaks, sewer defects, and power outages
Weather related — due to excessive amounts of rainfall that inundates the sewer system by Inflow or infiltration (I&I)
Overflows vs. Stoppages
A stoppage is when toilets, sinks, and other appliances drain slowly or back up within your house. An overflow is when untreated sewage leaves the pipes and is discharged into the outside environment.
Sewer Mapping GIS
Sewer mapping is the process of physically locating and plotting the sewer lines in the city. Sewer mapping is conducted to locate all the pipes, make design and engineering of new sewer lines easier, and make locating blocked lines faster for the stoppage crews.
We use existing drawings, field verification of locations, and the global positioning satellite (GPS) system to locate all manhole and value points. Once all this data is collected, we can simply connect the points to determine location and flow within the sewer system. Once completed, it will be another piece of the City of Hampton's geographic information system (GIS) database.
Sewer User Fee
The sewer user fee is set and approved by the City Council each year. The fee is used for maintenance, repair, and replacement of the wastewater (sewer) system as needed. Please visit the FAQ page regarding the sewer user fee or call the 311 Call Center with any questions.
Wastewater Maintenance and Rehabilitation Plans
In recent years, Hampton has been conducting sanitary sewer evaluations throughout the city, identifying structural, capacity, and operational deficiencies. The evaluations were conducted using closed circuit TV inspections, manhole inspections, smoke testing, dye testing, and flow monitoring. Deficiencies were prioritized based on severity and then organized by flow basins for future maintenance and rehabilitation projects.
You can view the City’s wastewater publications and documents here.