You probably have a sewage backup if several drains slow down at the same time, toilets gurgle or bubble, water rises in a tub or shower when you flush, or a sewer smell comes up from floor-level drains. One slow sink is usually just a clog. Several fixtures acting up together points to a blockage in the main sewer line.
Knowing which one you have decides who you call first. A licensed plumber or El Paso Water clears the pipe. Once wastewater has reached your floors, walls or carpet, you need professional sewage cleanup services as well, because what came up in that drain is the most contaminated kind of water the restoration industry deals with.
The Short Answer: Seven Sewage Backup Signs
- Several slow drains at once. Sinks, tubs and showers all draining slowly on the same day means the line they share is restricted, not one fixture.
- Gurgling or bubbling. Air trapped behind a blockage escapes through the nearest water seal, usually a toilet or tub drain.
- Water showing up where you did not use it. You flush, and the shower drain fills. The washing machine drains, and the tub backs up. This is one of the clearest signs of a mainline blockage.
- Toilets that back up again and again, especially more than one.
- Sewer odor from floor drains, tubs or showers, often described as rotten eggs.
- Dark water with debris coming up through a drain.
- Trouble at the cleanout outside: a wet patch, a sewer smell or overflow around the capped pipe usually found near the house or the property line.
Count the Drains, Then Find the Lowest One
Two questions tell you most of what a plumber will tell you. First, how many fixtures are affected? One slow drain is a clog in that fixture’s branch line. Every drain on the ground floor slowing down together is the main line.
Second, where did the water show up first? Wastewater that cannot get past a blockage backs up and leaves through the lowest open drain it can reach. In a slab-on-grade house, there is usually a ground-floor shower, tub or floor drain, which is why a backup so often announces itself in a bathroom nobody was using. The lowest drain is where to look first, and it is where the damage starts.
Much of the sewage backup advice online assumes a basement, where the basement floor drain plays that role. The logic is the same in an El Paso home. Only the location changes.
What Actually Causes a Sewer Line Blockage
El Paso Water, which runs more than 2,300 miles of wastewater lines, says more than 80% of wastewater blockages come from grease or grease combined with other materials. Grease poured down a kitchen drain cools, hardens and catches whatever comes next.
- Grease, oils and fats from cooking. The utility’s Defend Your Drains program exists because of them.
- Wipes and rags. El Paso Water calls wipes a leading cause of clogs in its lift stations and treatment plants. An April 2026 sewer overflow on Ramada Drive was traced to an accumulation of rags and wipes.
- Tree roots working into joints and cracks in older lines.
- Broken or sagging pipe that lets waste settle and build up.
- A blockage in the public main, which can push wastewater back toward every house connected to it.
The utility’s advice is simple: flush only the 3 P’s, meaning pee, poo and toilet paper. Everything else belongs in the trash.
Whose Pipe Is It? The Property Line Decides
In El Paso, the answer is written into the utility’s rules. El Paso Water is responsible for repairing the sewer service lateral inside the public right-of-way, up to the cleanout or property line. Everything inside your property line is yours to maintain and repair.
That split matters the moment a backup starts. If your neighbors have the same problem, or sewage is coming out of the cleanout, the blockage may be on the public side. Report it to El Paso Water at (915) 594-5500, option 6 (staffed 7 a.m. to midnight), or after hours through its online emergency form. If it is only your house, call a licensed plumber. Under the Texas Occupations Code, the piping that carries wastewater from a building to the sewer lateral counts as plumbing, so that repair belongs to a licensed plumber, not a restoration crew.
One more rule catches homeowners by surprise. El Paso Water requires homes with fixtures lower than the top of the nearest downstream sewer manhole to protect themselves with a backflow or other device, and customers who have not installed one accept responsibility for damage from a sewage backup. If your lot sits low compared with the street, ask your plumber whether a backwater valve belongs on your line.
Why Sewage Is Not Ordinary Water Damage
The restoration industry’s water damage standard, ANSI/IICRC S500, sorts water into three categories. Sewage is Category 3, which IICRC describes as water that “is grossly contaminated and can contain pathogenic, toxigenic or other harmful agents and can cause significant adverse reactions to humans if contacted or consumed.”
That changes the job. Clean water on a carpet can often be dried in place. Sewage is different. CDC flood-cleanup guidance is to throw away anything you cannot clean or dry quickly, including mattresses, carpeting, carpet padding, upholstered furniture, pillows and paper products. Anything left wet also runs into EPA’s advice to dry within 24 to 48 hours to prevent mold growth, so mold prevention is part of every sewage job.
It is also why we treat sewage as biohazard cleaning, not a mop-up. Every job gets complete decontamination, and we provide our own clearance testing to confirm the affected areas are clean before anything is rebuilt.
What to Do in the First Hour
- Stop using water. Every flush, shower or load of laundry sends more water toward the blockage and out the lowest drain.
- Keep children and pets out. The CDC says to keep them away from the affected area until cleanup is complete, and EPA advises that, whenever possible, teenagers should not take part in cleanup that would expose them to contaminated water.
- Protect yourself if you have to go in. The CDC recommends rubber boots, rubber gloves and goggles when sewage is involved. Anyone with an open wound should stay out of the water.
- Photograph everything before anything is moved or thrown away. Your insurer will want to see it.
- Call for the pipe and the cleanup at the same time. The plumber at El Paso Water clears the blockage, while our team handles water extraction and decontamination. Neither job should wait for the other.
The Smell Fading Is Not Good News
Part of that sewer smell is hydrogen sulfide, the rotten-egg gas given off by decaying waste. People notice it at very low levels: OSHA puts the odor threshold between 0.01 and 1.5 parts per million. At much higher levels, around 100 to 150 ppm, it knocks out the sense of smell entirely. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) puts it plainly: odor is not a reliable indicator.
So a smell that fades is not proof the problem has gone. Odor that lingers after cleanup usually means contaminated material or moisture remains somewhere in the structure, and it calls for professional sewage odor removal, not air freshener.
What Insurance Usually Covers
Sewer backup coverage in Texas depends on your policy, not on a statewide rule. The Texas Department of Insurance lists backup of sewers or drains among optional endorsements, notes that some policies cover water or sewage entering through sewers or drains, and warns that this coverage is not flood insurance. If you carry flood insurance through the NFIP, FEMA says sewer backup is covered only when it directly results from flooding.
Check your declarations page for a sewer or drain backup endorsement before you need it. If you do file a claim, Texas Insurance Code Chapter 542 requires your insurer to acknowledge it within 15 days and to accept or reject it within 15 business days of receiving everything it asked for. Our insurance billing team works with your carrier directly and documents the job so the claim holds up.
Monsoon Water Is a Different Problem
El Paso Water says the city’s storm drains are separate from the sanitary sewer. So muddy water pushing in under a door during a monsoon storm is floodwater, not a sewage backup, and it comes with its own cleanup steps and its own insurance questions. It is still dirty water, and professional flood cleanup follows many of the same precautions.
When It Is Not a Sewage Backup
A single slow bathroom sink with no smell is a clog, and a plumber solves it. A toilet that clogs once and clears with a plunger is the same. Neither needs a restoration company, and we would rather tell you that than send a truck.
Call us when wastewater has reached floors, walls, cabinets or carpet; when it has been sitting for more than a few hours; or when you cannot tell how far it has spread.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a sewage backup smell like?
Most people describe it as rotten eggs, from hydrogen sulfide released by decaying waste. A sewer smell from a floor drain, tub or shower that you cannot trace to one dirty fixture is worth taking seriously, especially alongside slow drains.
Is it safe to stay in my home after a sewer backup?
It depends on where the water reached. Keep everyone out of affected rooms until cleanup is complete, and do not use the plumbing until the line is cleared. For more on the risks, see our guide to sleeping in a water-damaged house.
Does homeowners insurance cover sewer backup in Texas?
Only if your policy includes it. The Texas Department of Insurance lists sewer and drain backup as an optional endorsement, and NFIP flood insurance covers it only when the backup is a direct result of flooding.
Who is responsible for a sewer line blockage in El Paso?
El Paso Water repairs the lateral within the public right-of-way, up to the cleanout or property line. The homeowner is responsible for the line inside the property. Report public-side problems at (915) 594-5500, option 6.
Who does sewage cleanup near me in El Paso?
We do, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, across El Paso and the Borderland, including water damage cleanup in Anthony. We strive to arrive within 30 minutes.
Cleaned, Tested and Documented Before We Leave
Jimmy Garza Emergency Water Removal has served the Borderland since 1984 as an IICRC Certified Firm with trained technicians, licensed, insured and BBB accredited, IICRC Register Number 144385. On a sewage job, that means complete decontamination, our own clearance testing, and a written record your insurer can follow.
Call (915) 474-9472 any hour, or contact us for a free onsite quote with no obligation.