Avoid Costly Repairs when your Sewer Line Backs Up: Sewer lateral pipes connect your house to the City Sewer line in the street.  These pipes can become plugged from grease, rags, toys, etc. . . Eventually this leads to a plugged sewer line that can cause sewer water to back up into your home damaging furniture, walls, and carpets.  Here's a coule of tips on how to avoid this costly problem: Dump leftover grease into a container, like an open soup can.  Allow the grease to cool and solidify, then dump the can in your garbage. Do not place paper towels, baby wipes, diapers, coffee grounds, dental floss, sanitary napkins, or other non-organic materials into the bathroom toilet or kitchen sink.  Place them in an empty container or plastic bag and throw them away with your garbage. NOTE:  If the sewer backs up into the house because of a plugged lateral, the resident is solely responsible for paying the bill to repair damages and unplug or repair the sewer lateral pipe.

General Information

Your sanitary sewer system is very much like your water heater - you don't think about it much , until it doesn't work.  Sewers are often taken for granted - out of sight, out of mind - until the out of sight part stops working.

If you have a sewer backup or suspect a blockage outside yoru house, call our Public Works Department FIRST at (801) 629-8271, or (801) 629-8221, after normal business hours. 

As a service, a crew will check to see if the backup is in the city's main, and if it is, help to clear the blockage.  However, if the blockage is in the lateral serving the residence or business, it is the resident's/business owners responsibility to clear any blockage in the lateral line, which connects their property to the city sewer main.  Several professional sewer maintenance and repair companies can be found in the phone book to accomplish this work. 

The Ogden City's Sanitary Sewer System consists of approximately 260 miles of sewer collection, and trunk main lines.  These systems service a 26 square mile area, which encompassess all areas within the city boundaries, except for a handful of residential properties still on septic tanks.  Central Weber Sewer Improvement District (CWSID) operates a waste treatment plant, which services 10 Weber County communities, including Ogden City. 

Sanitary Sewer Waste Water is collected by gravity flow, with only one lift station owned by the city.  Pipe sizes in this sewer system range from 8" to 52" in diameter.

Maintenance Program

Maintaining these lines involves cleaning, repairing, checking, and unplugging lines, responding to trouble calls/service requests, and providing sewer taps for new service connections with the city sewer system.

Ogden City purchased a portable TV camera that can travel through the sewer lines and show us clearly their condition.  As we tape the sewer lines, we have a much better idea of the condition of our sewer infrastructure, and what work needs to be done. Repair work on the worst identified problems is currently being accomplished.