What is a sanitary sewer?
A sanitary sewer is designed to transport only sanitary sewage (wastewater from your drains and toilets) to the treatment plant for treatment. A sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) is a discharge of raw, untreated sewage from this system into local waterways. Like CSOs, this typically happens during rainstorms.
This is the portion of the wastewater collection system designed to convey municipal sewage (domestic (household), commercial and industrial wastewaters) through a single-pipe system to a to a wastewater treatment facility. Included in the wastewater collection system are a network of force mains, gravity sewer lines and manholes.
A sanitary sewer takes household water and waste from toilets, sinks and showers, and transports it to a wastewater treatment facility. There, the water is treated and then discharged back to a lake or stream. Back to top How does storm water get polluted? As storm water flows over our lawns and driveways, it picks up fertilizers, oil, chemicals, grass clippings, litter, pet waste, and anything else in its path. The storm drain system then transports these pollutants, now in the water, to local lakes and streams. Anything that goes into a storm drain eventually ends up in a lake or stream. Back to top What Watershed do you live In? A watershed is made up of the land area that drains to a specific body of water, such as a tributary, stream or river. If you live in Southfield, you live in the Rouge River Watershed or the Clinton River Watershed. Back to top Rouge River Watershed Roughly ninety percent, approximately 15,240 acres, is in the Rouge River Watershed. The Rouge River is 126 mi
