City wraps up weeks of sewer smoke tests
By Matt Caulder
Published in News on December 8, 2013 1:50 AM
Two weeks and several false alarms to the Goldsboro Fire Department later, smoke testing on the city's sanitary sewer lines was completed Thursday and a report will be issued in the coming weeks.
The non-toxic smoke was pumped into the sewer lines near Stoney Creek Park, then along William Street to test for leaks in the sewer lines that could be allowing rainwater runoff to flow into the sewer.
Hydrostructures, a Pittsboro company, was hired to do the testing.
The false alarms were caused by smoke flowing up through drains, setting off smoke alarms, and from residents to call the Fire Department for assistance.
It happened several times over the past two weeks.
"The smoke has been coming up through the drains," Assistant Chief Frank Sasser said. "It's been happening all around the city. It's been setting off smoke detectors."
Sasser was at the We Are The World Too day care on William Street, which was the scene of another false alarm Wednesday.
"Some days we'd get two or three and some days we wouldn't get any," Capt. Carlton Parks said. "It wasn't every day but we got several of them."
The testing came about after an inflow and infiltration study by Hydrostructures showed that the city was processing a lot of rainwater along with its sewage at the wastewater treatment plant.
Processing unnecessary volumes of water inflates sewage prices over time.