Sewer line failures are a major cause of stream impairment in urban areas. While sewer line failures can be readily identified and corrected, other failures may be more difficult to remedy. This research examines the general problem of sewer line failures at two local creeks in Athens, Georgia: Stinky Creek, located on the University of Georgia campus, and Trail Creek, located downstream from a mixed residential and industrial zone in town.

Specifically, we look at 1) the observed causes of sewer line failures, 2) methods for determining which streams are being affected by sewer line failures, and 3) strategies for pinpointing the exact location of these failures so that they can be repaired. Locating sewer failures can be time consuming, particularly for subsurface leaks. Initial efforts of University students identified the problem with Stinky Creek. A watershed-scale survey, River Rendezvous, first identified the problem on Trail Creek. Once a contaminated stream has been identified a suite of techniques and iterative sampling are often required to narrow the zone of contamination. Efforts to repair failures are complicated because of the separation of responsibility among government agencies. Our goal is to set-forth an a priori plan for identifying and resolving wastewater failure problems.