Search for a Denver CO sewage problem and the results mix city-wide stories with trouble inside a single house. This post is about the second kind: what goes wrong between a Denver-area home and the sewer, using only what the city and nearby utilities publish.
It does not cover news about treatment plants or river discharges, and it does not predict anything about one particular address.
Denver's wastewater FAQ says moisture, warmth and nutrients in all sewer lines, private and city, suit root growth, and that roots head for the outside of a pipe and push through the smallest crack or pin hole. Left alone, they can eventually clog the line. The city's flood handbook gives a planting tip: keep trees and shrubs at least 10 feet away from sewer lines to reduce root damage.
The same FAQ lists things that clog a line: disposable diapers, baby wipes and feminine hygiene products should stay out of the toilet. It also says never to pour grease or gummy substances down a disposal, toilet or floor drain. The handbook lists grease, waste, roots and breaks in the pipe among the reasons a service line plugs.
Rain can start a backup even when the pipes at home are clear. The city's flood information page lists neighborhoods that take water in rainstorms and after wet winters. The handbook adds the plumbing detail: if the downspouts, footing drain or a basement pump feed the sanitary service, heavy rain sends the surplus into the sanitary sewers, and the water can come back up inside the house.
Not every sewage problem leaves a wet floor. A dry drain trap can let odor in, and the work of tracing it is described in following a sewer odor through a Denver-area house. Denver's contact page keeps separate entries for sewer backup emergencies and for the smell of sewer gas.
Denver's FAQ limits the city's role to main public sewers. Past the city line, Lakewood reports that privately owned lateral lines make up half of its sewer system and cause many backups, and Aurora makes the owner responsible for the service line and any damage it causes. The details for the city itself are in the Denver guide to who owns which pipe. Flooded basements with possible sewage in the water are covered in water damage cleanup in Denver, and who handles the cleanup itself is its own question.
A Contact Us request is forwarded to a cleanup contractor where one serves your suburb or street. The site itself dispatches nobody.
