Can I Dump Through Sewer Vent?

[longislandcampe]

So we are lucky enough to have sewers at our house. About a foot away from our house is a metal sewer vent that looks like the picture below. It's just a metal pipe coming from the ground with a cap on it. It is not threaded at all.

Let's say a got a macerator pump for my TT. Could I hook it up and then run a garden hose down the vent to empty my tanks?

[QCMan]

If you want to make things easier, dig down around that pipe and you will find a clean out cover. Unscrew the cover and put a PVC fitting in so you can raise it to just below grade and put a fitting for a 4" plug to screw in. Then you can use standard sewer fittings even if you are using a macerator. The clean out plug may never be used and if it needs to be used all you have to do is unscrew your extension. By keeping it just below grade it will be your secret.

[longislandcampe]

My parents were the original owner of the same exact house down the block. Almost 50 years ago. My wife and I bought the same model house as my parents house 4 years ago. I’m pretty well versed in this style of house and the oil tanks were placed in the back of the house. They have a fill pipe and a vent pipe about 2’ from each other.

The pipe I’m talking about is in front of the house. You can clearly hear water flowing if you stand near this pipe. These houses were built with sewer and never had any sort of septic tank.

I guess one day I’ll dump my green hose down this pipe for a bit to test things out. If all is well then I’ll look into dumping the TT there in the future.

[QCMan]

I lived on Lawn Guy Land for almost 60 years and that pipe is all over the place. Chances are the OP has a cesspool that was filled in when sewers got into the area. We lived in an area that had no sewers but everybody had that pipe. I made the mistake of asking a plumber to put in a port so the rv tanks could be drained into it. Two days after the request a Suffolk County official was at the door telling me it was against code to put anything but output from a house into it. Seemed to not be bright enough to understand that my rv is a house by legal definition.
We had another cesspool put in ( no permits needed for a second pool ) and all it was for was the rv. Not even plumbed to the house. Broke thru one of the knockouts and plumbed it to about two feet from the rv waste port. Folks who bought the house said that waste hookup was what clinched the deal as they had a motorhome.
Bottom line: do whatever you want on Long Island as long as nobody sees it.

[way2roll]

I would hire a plumber and do the due diligence to confirm. Lots of opinions based on a picture. Well worth the cost of an hour for a plumber to tell you for sure.

[JRscooby]

I can't see the area so don't know if it is sewer or not. I would think if it was put in for cleanout a flashlight would allow you to see flow.
Septic tank sewer; Years ago, 1 of my drivers was delivering a load of rock. Was told the house was on city sewer, then busted thru lid of a tank that was no longer used. I can see how a house that city has moved to could have both fuel and septic tanks that a owner might not know about.
(Fuel tanks, in particular, a seller may not want buyer to know about)

[bucky]

Fuel oil smells different than septic.
Tell the neighbor you don't much care for to see what he thinks since your smeller doesn't work after Covid.

[ferndaleflyer]

bukhrn maybe I wasn't clear.We had to submit our plumbing plan from the street to and including everything in the house to the city, they approved it and issued us a permit. Then as we built the place their inspector checked it along the way finally approving the entire installation. It is labeled RV dump. Anyway house is now about 7 years old and I have used it a lot and feel I have my but covered, I hope.

[enblethen]

One thing that I have avoided for many years now, is the use of RV chemical containing formaldehyde.
I have a septic tank and a good dose of that chemical can kill it.
Sewer systems with limited size and capabilities can get sick by large doses of several different chemicals. Better Half was compliance officer for EPA and investigated a cheese factory that dumped a large amount of ammonia into a city sewer system without going through their pretreatment system.

[Dusty_R]

We have a septic tank, I added a line to it to dump our MH.

[bukhrn]

ferndaleflyer wrote:
Might not make the city sewer administrators to happy. But--when we built our new house we had the plumbing fixed so I have a dump port that goes into the city sewer. They approved the plumbing so I guess in our case it was ok.

This would be my worry, having a city/county
employee knocking on my door, "Here's your Fine", but then every place isn't the same so maybe you'll get away with it, maybe not, check your local ordinances relating to your idea.

[wa8yxm]

rk911 wrote:

winnietrey wrote:
sure, that's not an oil tank fill?

that was my guess. doesn't looks like any sewer clean-out access port that I've ever seen.

I have seen sewer vents like that.
If you confirm it truly goes to the sewer and not somethign else.
Dump in it.

[enblethen]

Another thought would be to look at neighbors to see if they have same type of "vent".

[SJ-Chris]

Suggestion:
Run a garden hose at full blast for 5-10 minutes into that pipe and see if anything "unexpected" happens.

Then, dump your waste tank at your regular dumping facility. Then use your black tank flush several times and really clean the black waste tank as good as you can. Then, fill up your black waste tank with fresh water until it is 100% full. Then, do a test dump at your home with all that "mostly clean" water and see what happens. In the event things don't work out quite how you thought, or things back up because it flows too fast into it, or if it backs up or flows out somewhere else, at least it will be with "mostly clean" water coming during this test dump.

That's what I would do.

We have a waste line clean-out access point in our front yard. I have wanted to try it out. But my wife doesn't want me to so I don't. Is anyone else picturing Cousin Eddie in a bathrobe and smoking a cigar right now???

Good luck!
Chris

[enblethen]

If you are sure, it is sewer, yes, you can dump into it.
Older locations have/dad cast iron pipe for sewer. They didn't always use a standard cap on that type of pipe.
Location to me sounds like sewer clean out.