Wheeling, New York, Officials Launch Backflow Prevention Program

Sept. 16, 2021

The program will provide financial assistance for homeowners that participate.

Wheeling, New York, city officials are improving storm water backflow issues in select neighborhoods in the city with a new program.

According to city officials, the program will provide financial assistance for homeowners that participate, reported The Intelligencer. The officials also mention that additional solutions can be achieved if property owners also take preventative action.

In August 2021, Wheeling began a pilot program for “downspout daylighting,” which helped residents of the Clator area remove their downspouts from their sanitary sewer lines. This program redirected rainwater from downspouts into the city’s storm water system.

Members of Wheeling City Council voted to pass a resolution authorizing a new storm water flooding prevention program, and the program will be carried out by the Wheeling Public Works Department.

Homeowners who experience basement flooding after heavy rains experience such flooding because flow from their downspouts are overwhelming the sewer lines from their homes, causing backflow, according to officials, reported The Intelligencer.

“The backflow preventer/downspout removal financial assistance program is designed to help city residents stop basement flooding,” said Ward 4 Councilman Jerry Sklavounakis, reported The Intelligencer.

The program will provide financial assistance for residents by offering funds to help with the removal of their downspouts from the sanitary sewers and for the installation of backflow preventers. 

Some areas have a combined sanitary and storm water system, and major sewer separation projects have been taking place in these areas. 

In some cases the problem in certain neighborhoods may have a domino effect, so a property owner with a new backflow prevention system may be protecting their own home during heavy rains while flooding their neighbor in the process, according to Councilman Dave Palmer, who voted against the resolution, reported The Intelligencer.

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