Herald Journal Blog

Bob Roepke is right about the advantages of putting a liner in New Germany’s sanitary sewer lines. Roepke advised the city council to get liners at the council meeting last week. It won’t solve all of the inflow and infiltration problems, but it helps a lot. Other cities that use liners rave about how great they are. They don’t cost as much as replacing regular sanitary sewer lines and they prevent storm water from seeping in. New Germany residents won’t have to pay to treat storm water as if it is sewage. At the same time, I sympathize with New Germany residents who have sump pumps. Where do they go with the excess water? New Germany seems to be in a low area. Water doesn’t drain away very easily. When my in-laws lived there, every winter their entire back yard turned into a thick slab of ice. The melted snow couldn’t drain away. It stayed there and refroze. It was always treacherous for them to walk from their back door to the garage.