The City of Bend, Oregon uses the Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool, which plays sound waves through pipes to detect sewer line clogs in seconds.

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Have you been hearing music in your pipes? It’s not your imagination, or a noisy neighbor. It’s the city of Bend’s new climate-conscious effort to help clear any sewer line clogs.

The Sewer Line Rapid Assessment Tool (SL RAT) plays loud music to determine if pipes are clogged.

“It’s a tone that once you hear it, it’ll stick with you,” said collections system supervisor Justin Young, “But it’s got a musical tune to it. It can be very apparent. It’s no secret that there’s noises going through the sewer lines.”

A transponder is placed in one manhole, and emits the sound waves through the sewer lines. The receiver at the the other hole takes the sound waves and calculates them into a score to determine if there’s a clog.