Sanitary Sewer pipe inspected under pressure, Normal?

So I have about 50ft of 6" SDR pipe, gasket, and the inspector made us close it and test it under pressure. Is this typical? This is actually for washing trenches and no debri or connection to sewage. I also have a 2" water service line and he said he didn't have to inspect that one. I was so confused. Any comments?

Is this new installation?  Yes new sewer lines are typically tested under ~5psi pressure to check for tight joints.

What is there to "inspect" on a 2 in. line.  I would think a pressure test is in order but when the water service is turned on it'll get "tested" anyway.

MA_PE said:

Is this new installation?  Yes new sewer lines are typically tested under ~5psi pressure to check for tight joints.

What is there to "inspect" on a 2 in. line.  I would think a pressure test is in order but when the water service is turned on it'll get "tested" anyway.

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Yea its new installation. Thanks for the reply. 

Sewer line usually gets pressure tested at ~5psi with respect to the specified ASTM standard. 

In regards to the water service, usually from my experience, the city only performs test on water mains. Not sure on service lines. Usually it goes 1) Pressure test and then 2) Bacteria test. 

Hope this helps. 

I worked for a township and inspected sewer pipe under pressure.  

50 LF of 6" is a small volume.  It would be tough to pressure test.  If the plug on either end leaks even a little bit, the test will fail because it doesn't take much leakage to drop pressure in such a small volume.  (Not like 300-400 LF of 8" main, which is pretty standard).

Also the inspector should require you to test at a higher pressure if there is groundwater above the pipe.