06/23/2026
🚨 SAFETY ALERT: Please Do NOT Remove Sewer Manhole Covers 🚨
We’re hearing that some residents are pulling off sanitary sewer manhole covers to try to drain water off their streets. We get it—standing water is frustrating. But please don’t do this. It’s dangerous, it’s against city ordinance, and it actually makes flooding worse.
Here’s the problem:
Mont Belvieu has THREE separate pipe systems—water, sewer, and drainage. They are NOT the same. When floodwater gets forced into the sewer pipes, it overwhelms our lift stations and treatment plant. That can cause raw sewage to back up into homes and trigger overflows that take days to clean up.
It’s also a real safety hazard. An open manhole hidden under murky street water is an invisible drop that a child, an adult, or a vehicle can fall into. You could seriously hurt a neighbor or a first responder.
And it’s illegal. Tampering with the sewer system violates Chapter 40, Sec. 119 of the City Code and carries a fine “to the maximum extent provided by law.”
What to do instead:
See water that won’t drain?
Don’t touch the manhole—call Mont Belvieu Public Works at 281-576-6147 or 24HR dispatch at 281-576-2417.
Our crews are working drainage issues across the city right now, and your call helps us get to the worst spots faster.
Leave the covers in place. Every cover that stays put keeps our system running and your street safer.
We’ll keep you posted as conditions improve. Thank you, Mont Belvieu!
