Power outages resulting from the Aug. 4 violent electrical storm were a nasty reminder to hundreds of residents that without electricity maybe they shouldn’t flush their toilets.

More than 2,000 of the 21,700 customers tied into Warwick sewers are on “low pressure” connections requiring them to pump wastewater up to a gravity-fed line. From there it may go to a pumping station or flow directly into pipes feeding the treatment plant.

But without electricity, home “grinder pumps” stop and it is only a matter of time before the pump’s reserve capacity is maxed out. Then there’s the possibility of wastewater backing up into homes.

With as many as 31,000 Warwick homes and businesses without power last week, the fear of backups became a real concern. Within 24 hours of the first outage, the Warwick Sewer Authority urged homeowners with grinder pumps to conserve water usage and refrain from washing and flushing. By the second day of power loss, two independent electricians were dispatched to homes with portable generators to power grinder pumps long enough to clear those systems.

The events of last week have served to train the spotlight on low-pressure systems and who is responsible for them.

Weeks before the storm, Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur advocated that the Sewer Authority should be responsible for the maintenance and replacement of grinder pumps. He calls the pumps part of the “infrastructure” of the system and no different than the networks of pipes leading to the treatment plant or the equipment at the plant. As users of the system share in those costs, he thinks it should be no different for those with grinder pumps.

This will become a significant issue in the next three to four years, as the authority extends sewers to Riverview, Longmeadow and the Highland Beach neighborhoods as part of the Bayside project. Because of archeological sites in the area, inhabited by Native Americans until the early 1700s, the authority is designing a primarily low-pressure system that requires minimal excavation. As many as 800 properties will become dependent on grinder pumps.

Currently, the authority pays for the initial grinder pump, which cost about $3,500. The pumps have a five-year warranty, but if they fail after that it’s up to the homeowner to repair or replace it.

Ladouceur, whose legislation created the Warwick Sewer Review Commission and spearheaded the drive for a $33 million revenue bond to extend sewers, calls his proposal “a matter of fairness.”

“Because you live at the low end of a gravity line, it’s not your fault,” he says.

In that case, should the authority also pick up the cost of the electricity to run the pump?

That’s carrying it further than Ladouceur thinks practical.

Janine Burke, Authority executive director, said the issue of pump ownership and responsibility has been handled in different ways by different municipalities. She said she is “open to listening” to a change in the existing system, adding that in the end “it will come down to funding and costs.”

Authority board chair Aaron Guckian observed pumps have a five-year warranty.

“What we do now is a good system,” he said. He said he imagines “tweaking it” as demands and needs change.

Ladouceur thinks the system could be changed under the Authority’s rules and regulations and with the direction of the review commission.

As for the power outages caused by the storm, Burke said they caught everyone by surprise. At one point, 43 pumping stations lost power. All but 12 of those have emergency generators that kicked in. The dozen without backup power were brought back on line with portable generators. One of the most challenging pumps to get working was that on Kristen Court in Governor Francis Farms. Not only was the pump site littered by downed trees, but reaching it was difficult because of blocked roads.

Burke noted that grinder pump information including the storage capacity of the pumps can be found on the Warwick Sewer Authority website.