Use home sewer cleanout as dump station?

[RSD559]

I have found references to dumping RV tanks into home sewer cleanouts on other forums, but nothing definitive. In colder climates, it's not allowed for fear that the hose will stay connected for more than a short time and it would allow the sewer lines to freeze, or something like that. We don't have to worry about that here. I have a 4" cleanout about 3 feet away from the curb. Our only public dump station here is $15 per dump, and kind of a tight fit. I've searched the Fresno city web site and did not found anything yea or nay about how legal it is. Anybody informed about such things? I could do it on the sly, but that's not how I like to do things. Thanks.

[dodge_guy]

S.K. wrote:

dodge guy wrote:

turbojimmy wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Any home sewer clean out at a home goes into a sanitary line. Some houses have a storm drain at the curb of the property, but I'de like to believe that all of us would know the difference!

No, not a storm drain - a storm water management system on my property consisting of 2 underground dry-wells and an overflow pipe that runs off into the edge of my front yard. It consists of buried 4" white PVC pipe with three 4" clean-outs over a couple-hundred-foot run. I didn't know any of it was there until I started pulling the caps off of the clean-outs. The plumbing is identical to my sanitary sewer line, including the clean-outs, and also in the same general area.

My point is that a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out.

Ok, well there is an exception. However I would like to think if someone went through the trouble with that kind of system then they know what they have. Or if they bought the house it was explained to them. Our storm water drains at the curb are marked "drains to river" with a picture of fish on them.

So, do we agree that "a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out"? I would think that conducting a simple test as suggested by Turbojimmy before discharging the waste water into the drain might not be a bad idea.

Yes, I agree completely!

Once you determine its destination then you can either use it or not.

[Georgia_Popcorn]

danimal53 wrote:

turbojimmy wrote:
I dumped at home for the first time last week and it was so liberating!

HA, i read this a little differently, made me laugh quite a bit. I don't see why there would be an issue, like others said as long as you're sure it's a sanitary and not storm sewer, you should be fine. "Better to ask forgiveness than permission" "Better to ask forgiveness than permission"

My sentiments exactly!

[S_K_]

dodge guy wrote:

turbojimmy wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Any home sewer clean out at a home goes into a sanitary line. Some houses have a storm drain at the curb of the property, but I'de like to believe that all of us would know the difference!

No, not a storm drain - a storm water management system on my property consisting of 2 underground dry-wells and an overflow pipe that runs off into the edge of my front yard. It consists of buried 4" white PVC pipe with three 4" clean-outs over a couple-hundred-foot run. I didn't know any of it was there until I started pulling the caps off of the clean-outs. The plumbing is identical to my sanitary sewer line, including the clean-outs, and also in the same general area.

My point is that a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out.

Ok, well there is an exception. However I would like to think if someone went through the trouble with that kind of system then they know what they have. Or if they bought the house it was explained to them. Our storm water drains at the curb are marked "drains to river" with a picture of fish on them.

So, do we agree that "a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out"? I would think that conducting a simple test as suggested by Turbojimmy before discharging the waste water into the drain might not be a bad idea.

[dodge_guy]

turbojimmy wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Ok, well there is an exception. However I would like to think if someone went through the trouble with that kind of system then they know what they have. Or if they bought the house it was explained to them. Our storm water drains at the curb are marked "drains to river" with a picture of fish on them.

I've only been in the house since January. I've been finding all sorts of interesting things that weren't "explained to me" 🙂

Ya it's funny what you come across. At least you went out of your way to figure out what everything is when you find something.

[turbojimmy]

dodge guy wrote:
Ok, well there is an exception. However I would like to think if someone went through the trouble with that kind of system then they know what they have. Or if they bought the house it was explained to them. Our storm water drains at the curb are marked "drains to river" with a picture of fish on them.

I've only been in the house since January. I've been finding all sorts of interesting things that weren't "explained to me" 🙂

[dodge_guy]

turbojimmy wrote:

dodge guy wrote:
Any home sewer clean out at a home goes into a sanitary line. Some houses have a storm drain at the curb of the property, but I'de like to believe that all of us would know the difference!

No, not a storm drain - a storm water management system on my property consisting of 2 underground dry-wells and an overflow pipe that runs off into the edge of my front yard. It consists of buried 4" white PVC pipe with three 4" clean-outs over a couple-hundred-foot run. I didn't know any of it was there until I started pulling the caps off of the clean-outs. The plumbing is identical to my sanitary sewer line, including the clean-outs, and also in the same general area.

My point is that a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out.

Ok, well there is an exception. However I would like to think if someone went through the trouble with that kind of system then they know what they have. Or if they bought the house it was explained to them. Our storm water drains at the curb are marked "drains to river" with a picture of fish on them.

[hawkeye-08]

My opinion, use your sewer as you desire.

We put one in before we built our house (lived in trailer for 2 1/2 years). It is not very convenient with our newer trailer. I will figure out better location at some point and extend.

[turbojimmy]

dodge guy wrote:
Any home sewer clean out at a home goes into a sanitary line. Some houses have a storm drain at the curb of the property, but I'de like to believe that all of us would know the difference!

No, not a storm drain - a storm water management system on my property consisting of 2 underground dry-wells and an overflow pipe that runs off into the edge of my front yard. It consists of buried 4" white PVC pipe with three 4" clean-outs over a couple-hundred-foot run. I didn't know any of it was there until I started pulling the caps off of the clean-outs. The plumbing is identical to my sanitary sewer line, including the clean-outs, and also in the same general area.

My point is that a white cap sticking out of the ground may not necessarily be a sanitary sewer clean-out.

[dodge_guy]

Any home sewer clean out at a home goes into a sanitary line. Some houses have a storm drain at the curb of the property, but I'de like to believe that all of us would know the difference!

[turbojimmy]

S.K. wrote:

beemerphile1 wrote:
Just make sure that you dump into a sanitary line and not a storm line. Other than that, no worries.

How does one distinguish the two? Do they use the same type of caps?

In my case the caps were identical. I opened one up thinking it was a sewer and I could see it was a dry well (a pit full of stones). I opened up 2 others farther upstream that appeared to be on the same run. One was another dry well the other was a cleanout. All 3 were for rain water management - NOT sewer. When I looked inside the cleanout it could easily have been mistaken for a sewer.

I ultimately did find the correct sewer cleanout in my yard. Visually it looked like it could be on the same run as the storm water management but it wasn't. A sure way to tell is to open up what you suspect is your sewer cleanout and have someone flush while you shine a flashlight down in there and/or listen for running water.

[S_K_]

beemerphile1 wrote:
Just make sure that you dump into a sanitary line and not a storm line. Other than that, no worries.

How does one distinguish the two? Do they use the same type of caps?

[phillyg]

I'd do it, to hell with the neighbors. Poop is poop regardless of whether it's coming from the toilet or a tank. I would, however, make sure any tank chemicals are safe for public systems.

[RSD559]

It's the sewer cleanout. I put it in years ago. The city planted a magnolia tree right on top of the sewer line. Thus, the cleanout. I don't think we even have storm drains here. I believe the storm run-off runs from the street drains into recharge basins, which tries to get it into the aquifer. Not that we have a whole lot of run-off to worry about. The cleanout is under ground, about 8 inches. The box it's in is deeper. Our sewer rate is a fixed monthly amount. Not based on water usage. I think I'll use it as a backup. If we don't have a dump station where we camp, we will use it. Thanks for the input.

[SprinklerMan]

Its easier to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission .

I dont have an extention to my clean out right next to where I park my camper , made of 4 in PVC . And I would never dump my black or grey into the pipe I dont have .