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RFP2024-148 Private Sewer Line Service Plan

When:

City of Long Beach
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

 

  1. BACKGROUND

 

The City of Long Beach maintains a wastewater system (the “System”) that was constructed in 1951 and originally designed to treat 6.36 million gallons of wastewater per day.  The System is 50 miles long and is comprised of public and private sanitary sewer lines. The System presently has approximately 8200 private residential accounts and connections.

 

The 2009 study of the City of Long Beach Sewage Plant determined that the overall condition of the City’s sewer system is “poor to fair”.  Private lateral sewer lines are cast iron and operate on a gravity flow system. These cast iron sewer lines have a life expectancy of no more than 50 years. Estimates suggest that broken and dilapidated sewer laterals add an additional 60-70% to the wastewater flow to the City’s wastewater plant. This additional flow through the plant causes sewer overflows and increases the costs to the City for sewage treatment.

 

Each property owner in the City is responsible for maintaining his/her private sewer service lines The City owns the portion of the private sewer line from the end of the private property line to the connection to the sewer main in the street. Failure of a service line is unpredictable, repairs tend to be expensive, and individual property owners are not prepared to respond quickly or with full knowledge of what is required to remedy breaks and leaks. Private sewer lines are excluded from repair coverage in homeowner insurance policies. Accordingly, the City is of the opinion that there could be significant benefits to a private sewer line protection program for the City’s sewer customers. Additionally, the City believes that such a program would be in the best interest of the City and its residents, as the expeditious repair of leaking and broken sewer lines under a repair program would help prevent damage to City infrastructure, limit damage to homes, enable City resources to be used more efficiently, reduce infiltration and exfiltration of sewage into water bodies, groundwater and Reynolds Channel, prevent sanitary sewer overflows at the City’s sewage plant and reduce treatment costs for excess flow of wastewater into the treatment facility. Additionally, and foremost in the City’s opinion, homeowners may not be able to afford necessary repairs and a private sewer line program will reduce the exposure of expensive repairs for residents.