When wastewater leaves our homes it travels through an underground maze of pipes, called the Sanitary Sewer System, to reach the Wastewater Treatment Plant. The Sanitary Sewer System only moves wastewater. There is a separate piping system, called the Storm Sewer System, to carry rainwater runoff to the river or stormwater ponds.

In order to move the wastewater from homes throughout the city, some of which are many kilometres away from the Wastewater Treatment Plant, a pumping system is necessary. This pumping system uses lift stations (pumphouses) to help keep the wastewater moving in the sewer system.

Wastewater from our homes first travels through smaller pipes that eventually feed into large neighbourhood pipes called sewer mains. The wastewater in the sewer mains flows by gravity towards the various lift stations. The downward slope of these pipes is sufficient to produce a velocity of 2 feet per second. This high rate of speed helps to prevent sediment from settling in the pipes and keeps the wastewater from becoming septic causing odours and corrosion in the pumping system.

However, as the Wastewater Treatment Plant is not "downhill" from every home in the city, pumps in the lift stations are needed to ensure the velocity of the wastewater is maintained even when flowing "uphill".   A lift station simply lifts the wastewater back up to an elevation where it can begin flowing downhill all over again.

In Saskatoon there are 23 Lift Stations located all over the city. There is a table below to show the different locations, flows and number of pumps used in each lift station. All the lift stations in Saskatoon, other than the Storm Lift on Idylwyld Drive that is used for storm water, are used to help pump wastewater from our homes through the Sanitary Sewer System.