By James Eli Shiffer

My Sunday column told the tale of Ron Schmidt, who contacted me after the city of Golden Valley told him his sewer pipe allowed outside water to seep in. It's not the first time the Star Tribune has looked into the city's aggressive program for controlling "inflow and infiltration" - the costly phenomenon of rain and groundwater seeping into sanitary sewers. But with 1,800 of the city's 8,000 sewer services having been inspected and 90 percent of them failing their first inspection, the cost to property owners is also becoming clear.