Septic Services in Wakarusa, IN

Older homes and sewer lines in Wakarusa

Wakarusa is a town of about 2,000 people, and its downtown sits where Elkhart Street meets Waterford Street. Roughly a quarter of the town's houses were built in 1939 or earlier, by Census estimates. Only about one in seven was built from 2000 on. The town runs its own sewer utility, and its water comes from two town wells.

Roots and cracks tend to show up in sewer lines from that era. A slow drain in an old house may be a simple clog or a broken line under the yard. When the line itself has failed, sewer line repair or a new line is the fix. Some damaged pipes can take pipe lining instead of a trench.

Wakarusa's town code says the property owner pays to install and connect a building sewer. That is the pipe that carries a home's waste out to the town main. Tying into a town sewer takes a written permit from the town. Nothing gets buried until the town's Supervisor of Sewers inspects the work.

Why do drains back up in Wakarusa after a heavy rain?

Parts of the Wakarusa sewer are combined sewers, where rain water and sewage share the same pipes. When a storm fills them, the extra flow spills out at overflow points the town tracks. Its 2024 summary logged 5 inches of rain on July 10. One overflow point ran for almost a full day.

In a storm, a full combined sewer can push water back toward basement floor drains. The town code bars sump pumps and downspouts from any line that reaches the sanitary sewer. That rule keeps rain water out of the sewer. Drain cleaning clears a clogged line, and hydro jetting scours grease and roots off the pipe walls.

Septic systems on wet ground around Wakarusa

The land around Wakarusa is mostly Crosier and Brookston loam, per the USDA soil survey. Crosier drains somewhat poorly, and Brookston drains poorly. In the wettest season, the water table can rise to about a foot below the surface in Crosier soil. Brookston ground can be wet right up to the surface.

The survey rates these soils very limited for drain fields. It names slow water movement and a shallow saturated zone as the reasons. On the wettest lots around town, the county may not allow a standard trench. It can call for a pressure system, such as an elevated sand mound, instead.

A tank that goes too long between pump-outs can push solids into the drain field and clog it. Point downspouts and sump pump lines away from the drain field, because extra water slows treatment. A failed field calls for drain field repair or a replacement septic system installation. Every new tank and drain field needs an Elkhart County Health Department permit before it goes in.

Septic to sewer inside the town limits

A home inside Wakarusa can still run on septic, even on a street with a town sewer. The town code lets a working system stay while it meets the county health department's standards. If the system fails, the town can give official notice to connect. The property owner then has 90 days to hook up to the town sewer, at the owner's expense.

A septic to sewer conversion means a new building sewer to the town main. The old tank is taken out of service under the Indiana Department of Health's abandonment protocol. Before any digging, Indiana's dig law requires notice to 811 at least two full working days ahead. We put the whole conversion quote in writing.