After March, there will be a monthly fee for Albert Lea homeowners with houses built before 1975 who have not signed up for a sanitary sewer line inspection as part of the city’s inflow and infiltration inspection program.

During the Monday Albert Lea City Council meeting, councilors approved a $50 monthly fee for noncompliant homeowners. The fees begin after the Inflow and Infiltration Sanitary Sewer Line Inspection program ends at the end of March, said Kyle Skov with the city’s Engineering Department.

Homeowners who have their inspections completed toward the end of the program, will be given a time frame for when any necessary corrections need to be finished, Skov said.

If a homeowner scheduled his or her inspection but it was not completed before the end of the program in March, that person won’t be charged a fee, he added. The key is the inspection must be scheduled before the program is over to be exempt from the fee.

The inspection program — termed I & I for short — requires all houses in the city built before 1975 be checked for foundation drains that are connected to the sanitary sewer. Plumbers conduct video inspections of each drain, and if a connection is found, it will be properly displaced.

Local plumbers are conducting the inspections.

The program aims to prevent the treatment plant from reaching full capacity and backing up into people’s home during times of heavy rain.

The cost of the initial inspections are paid for by the city. Then, if any additional work needs to be completed, homeowners will be given the option to pay the plumber outright or to have the cost assessed to their property over a five-year period.

City Engineer Steven Jahnke said out of the 5,366 homes that need the inspection, 3,542 homes have been inspected thus far.

Out of those inspected, 101 have failed, and 56 inspections could not be completed.

About 1,050 homes have not yet been scheduled for an inspection.