City workers using smoke tests have discovered 1,360 anomalies in the sewer lines in the Citico Creek area, city council members learned Tuesday, and 730 of those have been corrected.
As part of an ambitious project aimed at reducing pollution in Citico Creek, the city has been using smoke tests to check sewer lines in the area for cracks in pipes, improper connections and uncapped cleanouts, with tests conducted every other week, officials said.
“We have corrected 58 service lines, and helped 58 households,” they noted.
Smoke testing is an efficient and cost-effective way to locate and identify breaks and defects in a sanitary sewer system. To conduct them, smoke from smoke bombs is blown into the sanitary sewer at manholes.
The smoke is non-toxic.
When smoke is seen escaping from the lines, it indicates the presence of defects in public sewer and/or private lines carrying sewage away from homes to Moccasin Bend Sewage Treatment Plant.
Finding and repairing broken sewer lines helps prevent sewage from getting into creeks, streams and the Tennessee River.
All storm drains in the city lead directly to one of the six creeks in Chattanooga: Lookout Creek, Mountain Creek, North Chickamauga Creek, South Chickamauga Creek, Chattanooga Creek and Citico Creek.
The six creeks flow into the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water for much of the area.
The watershed for Citico Creek is the only one of these six watersheds that begins and ends inside Chattanooga city limits, according to the Citico Creek Watershed Simulation Plan created earlier this summer by the city’s stormwater management division.
“Citico Creek begins along the top of Missionary Ridge and meanders west through neighborhoods (Bushtown, Churchville, Avondale and East Chattanooga), commercial and industrial facilities, and a major rail yard prior to discharging into the Tennessee River. The planning area includes 12.49 linear miles of creek draining 2,530 acres of watershed,” the plan explains.