Septic Services in South Bend, IN

Who owns the sewer line under a South Bend yard?

In South Bend, the sewer mains in the public right-of-way are city lines. The lateral from your house to the main is private, the city says. Indiana 811 locates the public mains, but not private lines. So the owner has to have the lateral located before anyone digs on it.

Many of these lines are old. By Census Bureau estimates, 28 percent of South Bend homes were built in 1939 or earlier. Another 32 percent went up in the 1940s and 1950s. An older lateral can crack or settle, and tree roots can grow in at the joints.

When sewage backs up in a home on city sewer, the city asks you to call 311, day or night. A city crew checks whether the trouble is in the city's system or the home's own drain line. If the clog is on your side, we clear it with drain cleaning or hydro jetting. If the lateral is cracked, we replace it, or reline it with trenchless pipe lining when the pipe allows.

Who permits septic work around South Bend?

A home off the sewer drains to its own septic system. Here, the St. Joseph County Department of Health permits that work. The county requires its permit before a septic system goes in or gets replaced. Repairs and changes to an existing system need a permit too.

The application goes in with a fee and a soil report from a soil scientist. The contractor then sends a system design to the department for review and approval. The department's environmental health unit works from the 9th floor of the County-City Building downtown. Every septic system installation in the county starts with those steps.

The city and county share one building department, which covers South Bend and the unincorporated parts of the county. By its checklist, a new house needs a county septic permit or a city sewer permit. South Bend is also backing new infill homes on vacant lots through its New Neighborhood Homes Initiative. New sewer lines are part of our sewer work.

What South Bend soil means for a drain field

Much of the ground under South Bend is sandy, by the USDA soil survey. Tyner, the most common named soil in the city, is very deep and drains fast. The survey rates 79 percent of the city's mapped land very limited for septic drain fields. In sand, wastewater can sink too fast to be filtered, while tighter soils move it too slowly.

In about a fifth of the city's land, the water table can rise within about a foot of the surface. FEMA maps flood zones along the St. Joseph River and Bowman Creek. A drain field in soaked ground takes water slowly.

NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals give the South Bend airport about 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year. May and June are the wettest months, with about 4 inches each. Snowfall averages 64.5 inches a year. Soggy spots over a drain field can signal a need for drain field repair.

Can a county home near South Bend switch from septic to city sewer?

Some can. The city has a sewer tap process for properties outside its limits that want city sewer. The owner files a utility verification form and a consent to annexation form with the city. Once those clear, the contractor on the job requests a sewer tap permit, the city says.

A city engineering inspector checks the work before the connection is made. The city says approval typically takes up to a week. After the switch, county rules say the old tank must be removed, or its lid collapsed into the tank. We dig the new sewer line and take the old tank out of service.