Sanitary Sewer

The Public Works Department is responsible for the City's sanitary sewer utility, including maintenance of conveyance systems, treatment and monitoring, planning for expansion of the existing system, and construction of extensions. Sewage is delivered to the City's treatment plant through a combination of both gravity and forced main systems. The existing collection system contains approximately 47 miles of sanitary sewer mains, including 6 miles of force (pressurized or pumped) main. The treatment plant was originally constructed in 1969 with a design capacity of 1/2 million gallons per day and was expanded in 1984 and 1992 to accommodate design flows of 1.72 million gallons per day during peak months. Ferndale's Sewer Treatment Plant underwent a major upgrade in 1998 and has the ability to treat 10 million gallons of wastewater each day. However, the City's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Waste Water Discharge Permit (NPDES) limits us from processing more than 3.2 million gallons per day.