Clam’s Route: Pay for the Pipe
Clam is a made-up catch basin truck, but the problem he works on is real: Chicago has a lot of street drains, they have to be kept open, and a flooded basement is the bill you pay when they are not. This page checks the facts behind the episode, with a link to every source.
As of October 15, 2026. Every number below was checked against its source that day.
Read the transcript
Declan: Every storm drain has one job. Let the rain go somewhere else. Meet Clam. Doesn’t say much. He just opens his mouth, and takes the trouble out.
Declan: Chicago plans to clean about fifteen thousand catch basins a year. Do the math. I’ll wait.
Declan: Skip the cleaning, and the rain finds a basement. Last year, Chicagoans filed more than nineteen thousand complaints.
Undertow: Not every flood starts at a drain.
Declan: No. But a clogged one never helped.
Declan: Twelve million dollars. Two underground tanks. Twenty-nine hundred buildings protected. Pay for the pipe, or pay for the flood.
Declan: The jaw goes down, the dark comes up, the rain runs out of sight.
The big idea
Here’s the whole idea in one breath: the boring, regular work of keeping a drain open costs far less than the mess when it isn’t. Let me show you the receipts.
Keep the drain open
The U.S. EPA says storm drains that are not routinely cleaned and maintained can build up debris and pollutants that lead to clogging, flooding and water quality problems.
Source: EPA fact sheet on storm drain cleaning, Dec. 2021Infrastructure wears out
Chicago installed nearly 200,000 street-inlet restrictors starting in 1997. The City’s own plan says that over time many have deteriorated, come loose or gone missing, which makes them less effective, so it now runs a program to inspect, clean and replace them, with a yearly target of 5,000 structures.
Source: DWM Operations and Maintenance Plan, sections 3.5.3 and 4.4.4Floods are expensive
Researchers at the Center for Neighborhood Technology counted 229,743 flood-damage insurance claims in Chicago from 2007 to 2016, with payouts of $433 million.
Source: CNT, Flood Equity Report (Dec. 2018)Not every flood starts with a clogged drain. Heavy rain can simply be more than a pipe can carry. A clean drain never causes a flood. Keeping drains open is the most basic layer of defense, and it is not the only one.
The numbers
The episode uses the first, third and fourth numbers. The other two appear only on this page, with their sources.
What a catch basin is, and what Clam does
A catch basin is the grate at the curb
Rain runs into the grate, drops into a small chamber under the street, and flows on into the sewer pipe. If the grate and chamber are packed with leaves, mud and trash, the water has nowhere to go and backs up onto the street.
What Clam does
Chicago’s Department of Water Management (DWM) says sewer cleaning “is either done by” vacuum trucks or “orange peels,” a clam-shaped bucket on a boom. Crews start with a light cleaning of the catch basin using the bucket, then jet and rod the outlet, and bring in a vacuum truck for heavy cleaning.
DWM’s cleaning crews work in three districts (North, Central and South) on a grid schedule, and also answer 311 requests. A typical district has 4 catch basin cleaning crews and 2 bucket rigs mounted on heavy-duty work trucks.
Source: DWM Operations and Maintenance Plan, section 4.4Do the math (Declan said he would wait)
“Do the math. I’ll wait.” Here it is. The City’s operations plan lists 225,000 catch basins in its structure inventory (the same document’s overview calls them 225,000 “collection structures”). The City’s stormwater plan says its crews clean about 15,000 catch basins each year. Divide one by the other and you get roughly 15 years to go around the whole city once.
Why that is a yardstick, not a verdict. The 15,000 figure covers DWM’s maintenance crews. DWM also cleans in response to 311 requests, uses contract crews for trunk sewers, and runs separate programs that clean structures as they are rebuilt (a yearly target of 5,000 structures) or have restrictors replaced (a separate yearly target of 5,000). It also sets a goal of cleaning the catch basins and sewers that drain to its ten most active overflow outfalls every year. For comparison, EPA describes one small city that cleans its whole system every 5 years, or 20 percent a year.
So the honest takeaway is a question, not an answer: how often does a basin on your block get cleaned? We did not find a published audit of catch basin cleaning frequency. A records request to DWM for cleaning logs by ward is the way to find out.
Source: City stormwater plan, section 4.6.2; DWM operations plan, sections 2.3.5, 4.4.3 and 4.4.4; EPA fact sheet311 by the numbers
Every Chicago 311 request is public data. We counted two request types in the City’s 311 dataset on October 15, 2026 (2026 runs from January 1 through October 15).
Water in basement complaints
Sewer cleaning requests (a resident reports a full or slow basin)
| 311 request type | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 so far |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sewer cleaning requests (a resident reports a full or slow basin) | 10,491 | 10,095 | 8,380 | 10,499 |
| Water in basement complaints | 17,450 | 4,227 | 19,279 | 7,224 |
What it says: basement-water complaints swing with the weather. 2024 was a quiet year (4,227) and 2023 and 2025 were not (17,450 and 19,279). Sewer-cleaning requests are steadier, at roughly 8,000 to 10,500 a year, and 2026 has already passed all of 2025.
What it does not say: that a clogged basin caused any particular flood. These are requests as logged, and some may be duplicates. For scale, CBS Chicago’s data team counted nearly 4,800 basement-water complaints in the first two days after the August 2025 storms (from Sunday night to Tuesday morning).
Source: Chicago Data Portal: 311 Service Requests; CBS Chicago, Aug. 19, 2025What flooding costs
What flooding costs a household
After the August 2025 storms, Chicago Lawn and Gage Park neighbors told CBS Chicago their basements flooded twice in three weeks. One homeowner estimated he had lost about $10,000. Six aldermen asked the City for a backflow-valve program. The mayor said the City is dealing with “hundred-year-old systems.”
Source: CBS Chicago, Aug. 19, 2025What it costs the city
CNT found flood claim payouts in 56 of the 59 ZIP codes that touch Chicago between 2007 and 2016: 229,743 claims, $433 million. CNT also found that 87 percent of the claims were paid in communities of color. These are insurance payouts only, so they do not include everything a flood costs a family.
Source: CNT, Flood Equity Report (Dec. 2018)What it costs the country
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. stormwater infrastructure a D in its 2025 report card. Its chair said that if the nation maintains its investments, each American household can save $700 a year, and ASCE’s president warned that delaying upgrades will cost families and businesses time and money.
Source: ASCE 2025 Report Card press releaseWhat the City is spending, and what it buys
The West Side wing storage pilot
On July 7, 2026, the City and the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District announced a $12 million investment in two underground “wing storage” tanks, together holding nearly 1.7 million gallons. The City says they are designed to help reduce street and basement flooding and to protect more than 2,900 homes, businesses and other buildings in the 28th, 29th and 37th wards, after severe West Side flooding in July 2023.
A wing storage tank is an underground holding chamber attached to the existing sewer. In heavy rain it holds the extra water, then lets it back into the sewer once there is room. DWM’s commissioner said projects like this can address flooding “more quickly and efficiently in targeted areas than replacing whole sections of our sewer system.”
It is a pilot. The City and the District say they will evaluate its performance to help inform future projects. “Protected” is the City’s word for what the tanks are designed to do, and we have not seen results yet.
Spending that did not get checked
I’m The Auditor. Paying to check the work is not the same as the work being checked. I can see it. Somebody else has to act on it.
Paying for work is not the same as checking it
This example is about a different DWM program, water mains and sewers built too close together, not catch basins. It is here because it shows why “who checks?” is the right question about any big spending.
In February 2025, the City’s Office of Inspector General published an advisory. It reported that the City had paid a company over $288 million between 2013 and 2023 to ensure contractors correctly installed water mains, and that after widespread noncompliant work was discovered in 2019 it kept paying that company millions of dollars a year. The OIG said fixing the problem can add unexpected time and cost, and that two contractors sued the City after it demanded corrective work. The OIG’s recommendation was more public information about the issue.
DWM’s response, as the OIG summarized it, affirmed that the public water supply is safe, and DWM disagreed with the recommendation to communicate proactively. This is the OIG’s description only. It is not a finding of wrongdoing by any person or company.
Source: Chicago OIG, Feb. 19, 2025What this means for you
- See a full or slow drain on a public street? Report it to 311 as a “Sewer Cleaning Inspection.” DWM says catch basins on private property are the owner’s job to clean. Source: City of Chicago, Sewer Cleaning Inspection
- Got water in your basement? Report it to 311 as a “Water in Basement Complaint.” Those counts are not just statistics: DWM’s plan lists the frequency and location of the previous year’s water-in-basement complaints as one of its considerations when it picks structures to rehabilitate. Source: DWM operations plan, section 4.4.4
- Keep leaves and trash off the grate. Bag your yard waste instead of sweeping it into the street. The City’s plan says residents can request yard waste pickup through 311, and it notes that leaves and debris cause blockages. Source: DWM operations plan, sections 3.5.4 and 4.8.2
- Ask your alderman for numbers, not promises. How many catch basins were cleaned in our ward last year? What is the cleaning cycle? How much of the flood-recovery money goes to upkeep, and how much to building something new?
- As a taxpayer, the lesson is simple. Money spent keeping things working is usually cheaper than money spent after something fails. Ask who is checking that the work gets done.
Timeline
- 1857Chicago begins building its sewer system, one of the oldest networks in the country (City stormwater plan).
- 1997The City starts installing inlet restrictors in street catch basins, nearly 200,000 in all (DWM operations plan).
- 2007 to 2016$433 million in flood-damage insurance payouts across Chicago (CNT).
- 2012 to 2024DWM lines 630 miles of sewer and replaces about 221 miles (City stormwater plan).
- Mar. 25, 2025ASCE grades U.S. stormwater infrastructure a D (ASCE).
- Aug. 2025Storms flood Southwest Side basements twice in three weeks; six aldermen ask for a backflow-valve program (CBS Chicago).
- 202519,279 “water in basement” complaints to 311 (Chicago Data Portal).
- July 7, 2026City and MWRD announce the $12 million West Side wing storage pilot (City press release).
Questions to ask
How often is my ward cleaned?
Ask DWM or your alderman for the number of catch basins cleaned in your ward last year, by month.
Is cleaning funded every year?
Ask what the next City budget sets aside for catch basin and sewer cleaning, and whether the crews and trucks are fully staffed.
Who checks the cleaning?
We did not find a published audit of catch basin cleaning. Ask how DWM confirms that a basin was actually cleaned and that it stayed clear.
Meet the crew
Clam has no lines. He lets his boom and his horn do the talking, and Declan translates. Read his character card →
Sources, checked live on October 15, 2026
- City of Chicago DWM, Stormwater Management Plan, May 2025 (PDF): about 15,000 catch basins cleaned a year, sewer history, lining and replacement
- City of Chicago DWM, Operations and Maintenance Plan for combined sewers (PDF): 225,000 catch basins, crews and equipment, restrictors, cleaning programs
- City of Chicago, Sewer Cleaning Inspection (311 request page)
- Chicago Data Portal, 311 Service Requests (counts pulled Oct. 15, 2026)
- City of Chicago, press release: West Side Wing Storage Pilot Project (July 7, 2026)
- CBS Chicago, “With repeated flooding, Chicago alders call for action to prevent backflow into basements” (Aug. 19, 2025)
- Center for Neighborhood Technology, Flood Equity Report (Dec. 2018)
- U.S. EPA, Storm Drain System Cleaning fact sheet (Dec. 2021, PDF)
- ASCE, 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure (press release, Mar. 25, 2025)
- Chicago Office of Inspector General, advisory on water mains and sewers too close together (Feb. 19, 2025)
Our arithmetic is labeled as ours: the 15-year cycle (225,000 ÷ 15,000). Everything else is quoted or counted from the sources above. We do not use any number we could not open and check.
Fictional characters. The Infrastructure Guard and all of its characters, places and events are original GOTB creations. Any resemblance to real persons, companies or facilities is coincidental. Real-world facts in each episode link to public sources.
The video is an illustrated, painted-style animation with synthetic narration and music. Clam, Declan Shea, Undertow, Commons and The Auditor are fictional characters, and no real people or vehicles are depicted.
About
Meet Michael E. Brown
President and Managing Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Michael E. Brown has 20+ years of governmental and municipal consulting and lobbying experience. He was lead contract negotiator on the $8.5B O’Hare 21 program and the $800M O’Hare rail extension, and lead lobbyist and contract negotiator on the $400M Chicago Department of Water Management lateral redevelopment. (Dollar figures are program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
He has worked with the Illinois legislature and public officials on public-private partnership (P3) policy, and has consulted to the Cook County Commission on reducing duplicative administrative offices. He is a frequent speaker at governmental and municipal functions, focuses on good government and healthier social and economic solutions for safe, successful neighborhoods, lives in Chicago, and serves on the Board of the March of Dimes.
- M.S., Psychology (1997), University of Iowa
- B.S., Psychology (1995), University of Iowa
About
Meet Richard Butler
Partner, GOTB Consulting, LLC · Chicago
Richard (Rich) Butler is a partner at GOTB Consulting and a 38-year veteran of Chicago city government. From August 2019 to February 2020 he served as First Deputy Commissioner and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Department of Aviation (CDA), responsible for day-to-day administration and operations of O’Hare and Midway, including finance, contracts, operations, legal, human resources, workforce development, concessions, real estate and vehicle services. CDA manages the two airports with a federally funded budget of $8.5 billion. (Dollar figures are budget and program sizes, not GOTB fees.)
Before that, Rich was First Deputy Procurement Officer at the City’s Department of Procurement Services and Chief Administrative Officer of the Chicago Park District, where he oversaw procurement, audit, finance, warehousing and general administrative services on an estimated annual budget of $385 million and established district-wide policies and procedures. His City career began at the Department of Aviation as Director of Contracts Administration, and he also served as General Superintendent of the Department of Streets and Sanitation.
He completed the Chicago Accounting and Purchasing System Training Program and the City of Chicago Executive Management Program, was a key team member on the design and implementation plan for the City’s new eProcurement system, and is a member of the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing and the Purchasing Management Association of Chicago. He has served on the board of the Chicago Municipal Employees Credit Union and on the US Communities board, representing the City of Chicago, and traveled to South Korea to represent Chicago in the Kotra Alliance to bridge contracting opportunities. A native of Englewood, he attended De La Salle High School.
- B.S., Northern Illinois University
Fictional characters from GOTB’s original stories. Real-world facts always link to public sources.