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Hidden assets: Sewers are an important public investment

Photo

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

A technician watches a live feed on a monitor as a remote-controlled camera scoots through the Darien sewer system. The village is checking the system to see if it needs repairs.

Photo

Photo by Bill Olmsted

This small camera allows technicians to see the interior of the sewer system in Darien. Besides shooting video, the remote-control vehicle can also take snapshots so officials can see what work is needed.

DARIEN — It's easy to see bricks falling off City Hall.

You can't miss it when the grass is overgrown in the park or when the street is full of potholes.

People can see those problems and complain until something gets done.

But hidden beneath the streets is another public asset. The sewer system.

It's not the sexiest topic in municipal government, but it would be hard to find a piece of public property that gets more regular use.

Unfortunately, it's easy to put the out-of-sight sewer system out of mind, said Jack Saltes, wastewater operations engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"It's one of the biggest assets a community has, but it's not like the park or the new fire truck that you can see and admire," Saltes said. "We take it for granted because we've had good sanitation in this country for decades."

Municipalities are getting better at recognizing the value of a healthy sewer system, Saltes said.

But the publicly owned portion of the sewer infrastructure is only part of the puzzle, Saltes said. Municipalities generally own the sewer mains, which are the lines that run under city or village streets.

In many communities, property owners are responsible for the sewer laterals. Those are the smaller lines that connect a home or business to the sewer main.

For the overall health of the sewer system, the mains and laterals must operate well.

Sewer cam

There wasn't an alligator in sight.

But another culprit loomed inside a manhole on Highway 14 on the southwest side of the village of Darien. Stealthily, it seeped into the clay pipes and ran down into the sewer system.

The nasty culprit: a steady, finger-sized flow of groundwater.

That water has no business in a wastewater sewer and is posing an expensive problem for Darien residents in the village hit with the combination of a high water table and leaky pipes.

That means the village has been stuck paying to treat up to 500,000 gallons of water a day, even though residents were only pumping 120,000 gallons per day through their homes.

The rest of the water is leaking in through aging pipes or flowing down from the surface.

It's not going to be a cheap fix. But village officials have agreed that fixing the problem would be better than paying to treat water that doesn't need it.

In December, village auditor Pat Romenesko told the village board it would have to increase sewer revenues by $100,000 in 2009 or risk "going broke" from treating the water that doesn't need it.

So far, the board has avoided increasing sewer rates.

The board in May unanimously voted to direct village staff to apply for two low-interest loans to fund repairs to the sewer system and directed village engineer Brandon Foss to finish televising the first of three sections of the village's sewer system.

At the time, Foss told board members repairs would cost $2.4 million at the most. That amount assumed the village would have to replace every inch of sewer in the village, and that's not the case, said Foss, an engineer with Crispell-Snyder of Lake Geneva.

Darien cam

Foss and inspector Robert Muchka invited the Gazette to watch them work.

Muchka is the owner The Expediters, a team of construction and sewer inspectors out of Oconomowoc. Crispell-Snyder contracted with the company to televise Darien's sewers.

The first step is cleaning out the pipes. One truck led the way, flushing sediment and other buildup.

The camera truck followed.

The camera was a small, steel "tractor" attached to the end of a cable. Workers lowered the wheeled device into the manhole and directed it to run in each direction through the sewers.

Another worker sat in the truck and watched the video as it was made.

In June, workers were televising portions of the sewer system made of red clay pipes. The camera showed water running in through some cracks. The tractor could be made to stop, zoom in on a problem spot and snap a photo.

The Expediters will give Crispell-Snyder a printout of each section of the sewer from manhole to manhole. A diagram of each section notes where water runs through cracks, joints or deformed pieces of pipe.

Foss will use the data to make a recommendation to the village board. He expects to do that in August.

Options could include spot repairs, replacements, manhole repairs or sewer lining.

The information sheds some needed light on the sewer system, Foss said.

"One thing that's been ignored in this country is the sewers because they're out of sight, out of mind," he said.

High maintenance

The village of Darien will note the cleaning and televising on its annual report to the DNR, Foss said.

Municipalities self-report maintenance and operation activities to the state.

The DNR evaluates the reports and watches for problems.

Clean sewers can move more wastewater and are less likely to cause public health problems or environmental emergencies, Saltes said.

"When you flush, you want to convey that wastewater to the treatment plant very efficiently without a problem," Saltes said. "You don't want that sewage coming up into a ditch or a stream. Maintaining sewers is part of preventing public health issues and protecting the environment."

Municipalities should work with property owners to make sure rain gutters or sump pumps aren't going into the wastewater collection system. That water should go into the storm water system, which is a different thing entirely, Saltes said.

Homeowners are starting to look at options such as rain gardens or rain barrels as ways to use excess storm water and keep it out of the wastewater system, Saltes said.

Homeowners should be proactive about cleaning the lateral that connects their house to the public main, Saltes said.

But many homeowners don't know anything about the condition of their sewers until it's too late, he said.

"Property owners should know the condition of their lateral and keep it clean," Saltes said.

He hires a professional to clean his lateral every two to three years, Saltes said.

"You want to do that before you have a problem in your house," he said. "There's nothing worse than when you go to use the sink or shower and it doesn't drain. Then you're in a reactive mode, and that's horrible."