Manholes are underground assets that allow for easy access to sewer components for cleaning, maintenance and inspection. They are subject to the extreme conditions that all wastewater facilities handle, in addition to weather and traffic stress from the surface. As such, inspecting these necessary access points to ensure their integrity is an important part of collection system maintenance. 

In September 2001, Ground Penetrating Radar Systems (GPRS) entered the construction service industry as a concrete scanning specialist. Fast forward 20 years, and this Toledo, OH-based powerhouse is now the country's largest utility locating, concrete scanning, and video pipe inspection company. With a 99.8% accuracy rating on over 250,000 projects, GPRS is well-known in the industry for its commitment to providing safe, comprehensive subsurface solutions.

In the early 2000s, Mark James settled down with his wife in the City of Redmond, OR. James and his wife were quickly taken by the area’s small-town charm. And they weren’t alone—from 2000 to 2006, Redmond’s population grew by a whopping 74%. The town became a bonafide city, but it’s held onto its tight-knit community values over the years. 

A Variety of Vehicles

“My favorite part of the job is when a customer asks for a unique feature in their vehicle, and we get to come up with creative solutions to make everything fit together. I like that no two days are the same.” 

Historic Beginnings

In 1943, the U.S. Army purchased the small town of Richland, Washington and its surrounding area to build a nuclear production complex. The community was quickly converted into living quarters for the thousands of soldiers working at what became known as the Hanford Site. The plutonium manufactured at the complex was instrumental to the Manhattan Project, which produced the world’s first nuclear weapons during World War II.

Without the proper insight into system condition, sewer cleaning can lead to a big waste of time, money and water. Rugged, easy-to-use inspection technologies help wastewater pros eliminate guesswork, select the right nozzle for the job, and focus their cleaning efforts where it matters most. Read on to learn how sewer cleaning programs across North America benefit from inspection capabilities.

Utility locating is the process of locating and marking buried utility lines, including gas and sewer lines, phone cables and others. Operators use locating equipment and sensors to determine the location of utilities, then use markers such as chalk and spray paint to map where utilities are underground. The main goal of locating services is to ensure utility damage prevention. 

The City of Roseburg is tucked in southern Oregon’s forested Umpqua River Valley. The community of about 25,000 residents is expanding, and its urban daytime population swells to more than twice that size. Recent years have brought new businesses and restaurants to the area–and they’re all serviced by Roseburg Urban Sanitary Authority (RUSA), which manages over 160 miles of sewer mains and 10 pump stations. 

Facing Off Rainfall, Roots and More

In this environment, RUSA has its work cut out for it. Kyle Bartlett, RUSA’s collection system supervisor and a Roseburg local, explains that the area sees heavy rainfall in the winter months. This rainfall becomes groundwater that creates problems with inflow and infiltration. Roots also present a persistent challenge: Roseburg has been called the “Timber Capital of the Nation,” and its wooded landscape means root intrusions are constant.

In addition, the boom in restaurants has produced complications with fats, oil and grease (FOG) in its collection system.

“Identifying grease with our CCTV equipment is something we’ve been trying to improve on recently,” Bartlett explains. “We’ve been ramping up our FOG program in the last few years. We’re able to track a naughty list of the restaurants that are discharging grease into our system, and check them annually…. If I find some I notify the inspectors.”

“I Didn’t Want To Go Backwards.”

High-quality sewer assessment equipment is essential to identifying these sources of FOG. In 2018, RUSA decided it was time to retire its 10-year-old Envirosight Supervision crawler. Bartlett researched every new system out there, intent on securing the most cutting-edge gear he could find. 

“I didn’t want to go backwards,” he says of his equipment search. 

He looked into Envirosight’s ROVVER X sewer inspection crawler and was impressed with its modern features, particularly its touchscreen controller.

“The touchscreen was really cool to me, and ROVVER X was the only system that felt like an upgrade.”

RUSA quickly invested in a mainline RX130, RX95 and a RX400 for trunk lines. And in the next couple of years, the Authority would also purchase a lateral launch add-on for ROVVER X and a CleverScan manhole scanner from Envirosight.

When it comes to finding the right sewer video inspection equipment for your projects, there are several things you should ask yourself: 

• What is the scope of my project? 
• What kind of access do I have to the line being inspected? 
• What size pipe will I be working with? 

Different cameras have different capabilities and benefits, so these questions will help you narrow down your options and choose the best inspection camera for the job. 

Sewer inspection cameras come in all shapes and sizes, depending on their function and the type of pipe they inspect. At its most basic, a sewer inspection camera consists of a small, durable camera, lights, and some mechanism to help the camera enter a pipe and/or manhole. Sewer cameras are used to identify problems in sewers, such as blockages, pipe breaks and sewer corrosion.