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125 Mr. Schwartz provided an overview of this topic that the City Council had 126 requested the PWETC review and make recommendations of any revisions 127 regarding ownership of water/sewer laterals and related liability. 128 129 Current Policy 130 • Ownership lies with property owner from city main to building 131 • City participates in sewer wye replacement as a part of the private 132 repair/replacement 133 • Property owner hires contractor to repair or replace 134 • Sewer connection at main (Wye) is a frequent ource of problem 135 136 Discussion included a definition of the sanitary sewer connection (Type A) at the 137 main with service connection off to the side; the necessity of digging up the entire 138 line for repairs; with the City performing the street patch if on a city jurisdiction 139 roadway, whether asphalt or concrete, at cost to the homeowner and to City 140 standards. 141 142 Mr. Culver noted this was the reason staff strongly encouraged residents, during 143 any construction and/or mill and overlay work on their street if they've had any 144 issues at all with backups or drains indicated during televising of that line, that 145 they hire the City's utility contractor at that ti eplace their service line while 146 the street is dug up to avoid that additional cost to omeowner and the City 147 ending up wit tch on a newly rehabilitated roa way. 148 149 At the reques of Member Lenz MISchwartz a vised that in newer developed 150 areas or with newer homes, it was tore likely that better and more 151 technologically advanced materials had been used for the laterals. However, in 152 neighborhoods with varying ages of homes, or those having sewer work done in 153 the late 1950's and 1960's, those lines were clay tile and at that time service 154 laterals were stubbed out beyond the existing roadway and in most cases of clay 155 tile as well. Mr. Schwartz advised that those materials are now creating the 156 problem due to root intrusion at the joints and subject to collapse if the line was 157 not embedded in sand properly. 158 159 In ownership considerations of the laterals, Mr. Schwartz advised that some cities 160 take responsibility to the property line, and in Minnesota municipalities are 161 protected to some degree under the discretionary immunity statutes provided a 162 municipality has done due diligence in cleaning/inspecting lines, a city is then not 163 liable for damages from backups from its mainlines. If there is a history of 164 backups in a particular segment of the main and a municipality doesn't take steps 165 to correct that issue by repairing or replacing it, a city would eventually become 166 liable for the back-up damages. 167 168 However, Mr. Schwartz noted that it becomes more difficult maintain the sewer 169 lateral from the main to the property line; it could be a grey area when the backup 170 occurred in the service lateral; or how to determine where it occurred and how to Page 4 of 19