TYLER, Texas — The City of Tyler has been working to fix its aging wastewater collection system to prevent leaks and other accidents.

During Tuesday's city council meeting, three projects were approved and another project that has been completed was discussed.

These projects all fall under Tyler's Consent Decree, which went into effect in 2017 for the next 10 years.

"The Consent Decree is a program in which we are actively reviewing and identifying repairs needed for our sanitary sewer collection system," said Paul Neuhaus, Tyler environmental compliance engineer.

The first project is the Private Lateral Program Administration, Design, and Resident Project Representative Services. City crews will be inspecting private sewer lines to see if repairs are needed.

"We own the line in the street, but there's a private line that goes from that house to the street," Neuhaus explained. "There may be clean out caps missing or that line may be failing. As a result of that, we have inflows every time it rains into the system."

In other words, when it rains, the city's water treatment plant is taking in additional water from the private lines. Neuhaus says if that is happening, the city is figuring out how to cover the cost.