Walton City Council approved an ordinance requiring sewer backflow prevention devices be installed on new buildings at their meeting Tuesday evening.
The ordinance amends an existing section of the city code on city ownership of all lines, meters and other water and sewer equipment. The new amendment requires sewer connections be installed on future constructed buildings.
In cases “where it appears because of location or elevation, that there may be a risk of backflow of sewage from the public sewer, suitable provision shall be made to prevent its overflow into the building with the installation of a backflow prevention device and a sewage grinder,” the ordinance reads.
The move comes four months after Walton residents Jodi Farmer and Sharon Baldwin asked city council for a solution when their homes were flooded with sewage twice within a year.
“We are just trying to improve how we do things going forward in the future on new construction,” said Mayor Gabe Brown. “If a house is being built below an existing sewer line, in the event of some kind of failure, there is a stopping mechanism for it.”
The sewage backups occurred because emergency backflows were not to be installed on her sewer pumps, Farmer said, which allowed sewage backup to flood her home after an electrical outage.
When the most recent backflow occurred on Memorial Day weekend, Baldwin, who is 76, and her daughter, had their surviving belongings placed in storage containers and lived out of a hotel for two weeks.
“We just want to make sure in the future that we don’t have anything happen like that,” Brown said. “Trying to look out for the wellbeing of our citizens.”
