Sue Bilz has lived in the same Covedale home on the West Side of Cincinnati most of her life. Her unfinished basement looks pretty typical at first glance, except almost nothing is on the floor.
"This is the reason I have to put stuff up," she says, pointing to the floor. "Because this is where the main drain issues have occurred."
She's talking about sewer backups — it can happen when rain overwhelms the combined sewer system, which puts human waste and stormwater runoff in the same pipes. Bilz says a thunderstorm in the forecast puts her on high alert.
"Now we redid this area. There used to be a drain over here but we filled it in — that was also an area of backup," Bilz says walking through the basement. "If you come over here, you'll even see some areas where it even reached what — three? At least three feet. So that did not happen often, but it did happen."
Three feet — that's how high a mix of stormwater and raw sewage has gotten in Sue Bilz's basement. And she's not alone.
Who is impacted
About 700 communities in the United States have combined sewer systems, which sometimes dump raw sewage into waterways during heavy rain. The Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati, or MSD, is one of many city organizations under a federal consent decree to reduce how often that happens.
Sewer backups are also a consequence of combined sewer systems, but they don't violate the Clean Water Act; that means most consent decrees don't address them.
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"The addition of the sewer backup program into our consent decree was really the result of the Sierra Club's involvement in the decree," says MSD Director Diana Christy. "And it is something that is different than most other communities."
Over the past 20 years, MSD has confirmed nearly 8,000 sewer backups across the city were caused by the combined sewer system. About $28 million has been paid to homeowners to cover property damage caused by a sewer backup.
MSD is working to expand the capacity of the sewer system, but it's hard to track progress on sewer backups (abbreviated as "SBU"). One year might have several big rain storms that overwhelm the system, and the next year might have only one or two.
And an increase in sewer backup reports might be a good thing, because it means more people know they can go to MSD for help. There's even a court-appointed ombudsman to help guide people through reporting a sewer backup, the investigation, making a damages claim, collecting evidence — and if they're not satisfied with MSD's response, how to challenge it in court.
What needs to happen when
The Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati has been responsible for ombudsman services since the consent decree was first finalized. Matthew Fitzsimmons has the official title currently.
"We do hear from homeowners that did not know about the reporting requirements," Fitzsimmons told WVXU. "It's our position that MSD has an obligation to make it known and to publicize the SBU program."
A homeowner has to report to MSD within 48 hours of discovering flooding. That triggers an inspection where MSD decides whether the flooding was caused by a capacity-related sewer backup, or water coming in some other way, like through the windows or foundation. If you miss the deadline, you're not eligible to get help from MSD to clean up, or to reimburse you for damages.
"We need that information out there," Fitzsimmons said. "When there is a hard rain, get the word out. But also get the word out when it's dry, just so the information is out there."
MSD has previously mailed out refrigerator magnets with the phone number for reporting a backup. Fitzsimmons says that's been effective, but it's not enough.
"The the method is immaterial to us, we just want the information out there so that homeowners and property owners know that they need to call in when they have a backup," he said.
MSD recently started sending out news releases when the forecast calls for heavy rain so local news stations can let people know if they have water in their basement, it might be a sewer backup and it should be reported to MSD.
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MSD can install a backup prevention device at a home that's had at least two eligible backups within a five-year period. Each one costs around $50,000. MSD has installed about 1,400 prevention devices since 2004.
Sue Bilz says there have been dozens of sewer backups in her Covedale home over the years. She says MSD wouldn't take responsibility for a long time — until an especially bad storm in 2021.
"MSD called me specifically the next day after the event. And they said the float test had indicated that we had experienced a legitimate sewer backup," Bilz said. "[It was] total verification that what we had been fighting for, we were right. And we knew we were right."
How to report a sewer backup
If you have water in your basement after a rain storm, MSD officials say you should report it as soon as possible — even if the water goes down quickly.
You can report a sewer backup to MSD 24/7 by calling 513-352-4900 or submitting a form online at msdgc.org/sbu
You can contact the ombudsman at 513-362-2801 or info@lascinti.org.
Listen to Backed Up
Learn everything you need to know about combined sewer systems in Backed Up, a new podcast from Cincinnati Public Radio. Available at wvxu.org/backedup or wherever you get your podcasts.
