In the summer of 2015, Troy Ouverson — the owner of Ouverson Sewer and Water, a pipe lining and repair company in Loretto, Minnesota — encountered a job that tested his employees’ skill and mettle.
The problem: a ruptured 4-inch-diameter residential lateral line that apparently had been leaking for years. For starters, the lateral configuration was unusual, to say the least. Two lateral lines — one running from each of two adjoining houses — merged inside a private manhole, then continued as one pipe from there out to the main sewer line. “In all, there was a total of 400 feet
