When a sewer or water pipe breaks, it’s serious business.

“The minute you have a water leak in a line, you have contamination,” Sammamish Plateau Water & Sewer District spokesperson Janet Sailer said.

But with a better method of interacting with the district’s underground infrastructure, line breaks are less likely to happen, she said.

Using a “vactor” truck, district staff pump water into a small hole cut into the ground to create a “slurry out of the soil,” Sailer said. Then, a large, flexible hose mounted to the truck — or elephant trunk, as she described — sucks out the sludge and stores it in the truck.

“The vactor (extraction) leaves a smaller footprint for excavation,” she said. “Using the vactor also protects the many other underground utilities such as cable, phone and Internet.”

Employees, saved from intense labor, are free to work about in the cleared space underground.

The sludge is taken back to the district’s new $3 million dollar facility located in Sammamish off of 228th Avenue Southeast includes a decanting area that allows for the liquid to drain from the soil.

Previously, district employees used backhoes, or shovels as an alternative, to break ground. The backhoe bears the risk of penetrating the pipe, she said.

The district has been using this method for about 8 years and has two vactor trucks.

“This all improves our efficiency,” district project manager Jim Konigsfeld said.

Though, since the district has newer pipes and carefully manages the water system pressure to minimize problems, line breaks are far lower than the national average of 45 breaks per year, Sailer said.