The Root Of The Problem: How Trees Affect Our Sewers

As communities have urbanized and densified, increased development has surrounded our trees in a concrete jungle. Especially in urban environments, tree roots, specifically tap roots, must grow deeper into the soil to find water and food.

These roots travel underground like an unorganized highway system as they compete with other vegetation to find the best resources for survival. Roots can grow for hundreds of feet looking for water and nutrients. As the roots grow and expand over time, they ultimately find our underground infrastructure and can grow in and/or around it.

Our sewer pipes are like magnets to tree roots because they contain moisture, oxygen, and food. Initially drawn to the condensation around the pipe, once a root finds opportunities for egress into the pipe, the life cycle of the infrastructure begins to degrade rapidly. The damage will typically continue to get worse as the roots grow and expand.

If untreated, pipes can become blocked completely by tree roots, causing sewage to gush out of manholes and/or flow up a customer’s lateral lines and into homes and businesses. Untreated sewage released by American cities into waterways amounts to more than 860 billion gallons of polluted water each year according to The American Rivers organization.