The city of Bedford, Indiana—known as the “Limestone Capital of the World”—has a population of fewer than 14,000 people. Though small, it has taken big steps in recent years to gain the upper hand over its sewer and stormwater systems. 

Working long days to keep the sewer mains clean and running has become a tradition for one Southern California family. Their company, Houston & Harris, first opened its doors 31 years ago by offering services for underground inspection and cleaning. And while many things have changed over three decades of business—including new technologies to complete the work—its core mission and family-centric character have remained the same. 

Like many communities in the state of Oregon, the City of Tigard has seen major and consistent growth in recent years. With an annual population growth rate of 2.67% in 2017—a trend that’s only projected to continue—the city has had to take a step back and reassess how it manages its sewer maintenance operations, among other processes, to keep up with the increase in demand.

Located just an hour north of Seattle, Lake Stevens Sewer District is home to approximately 32,000 people and 13,600 sewer connections. For nearly six decades, the District contracted out its service and CCTV inspection needs, but once its leadership did the math, they found that this process was costing the department as much as $2,000 a day. In 2016, Lake Stevens decided to remedy the problem and move inspection operations in-house, and to purchase its own sewer inspection equipment. Not only would the solution be cost-effective, but it would also give the organization more control over the scheduling, prioritization and long-term planning of its sewer maintenance.

Twelve years ago, Neil Buchanan set out to start a small excavation company called Buchanan Contracting, Inc. This small company soon became Kentucky’s most trusted one-stop shop for underground projects. Today, the company has several divisions, including CCTV inspection, cleaning, excavation, sewer testing, CIPP and manhole rehab. The growth was exponential and now the company employs more than twenty workers and inspects close to a million feet of pipe per year. One of the things that sets Buchanan apart from its competitors is the company’s ability to do cross bore inspections.

Nestled between Calgary and Edmonton lies the City of Red Deer, the third largest city in the province of Alberta, Canada. Known for beautiful walking paths and the Red Deer River that winds through the heart of the city, it’s a majestic place to live for over 100,000 residents. In Red Deer, the summers are long and comfortable, but the winters bring arctic weather. Freezing temperatures present significant challenges for the city’s 14-person wastewater crew, which is responsible for a total of 533.2 km (331 miles) of sanitary sewer pipes and 560.3 km (348 miles) of stormwater pipes.

Sewer drainage issues are the last thing you want in a surgical center. Doctors—and those in their care—like to keep things clean. In fact, when Carl Fielder, the video inspection coordinator for Luckinbill, Inc., paid a visit to the clinic to inspect the center’s drain system, he and his teams were asked to wear paper coats, booties and goggles, and cover their heads and facial hair. Their ROVVER X inspection crawler received a deep clean and was covered in plastic wrap.

Robert Korosec, PLS, is cofounder of Utica, NY-based Subsurface Utility Imaging (SUI), a company dedicated to location and inspection of underground infrastructure assets since 2010. As such, he’s been actively using and researching new pipeline and manhole inspection solutions on behalf of many municipal clients. “Cities don’t have money, and their infrastructure is unreliable,” he says plainly. “Anything we can do that makes sewer maintenance more cost-effective is useful and appreciated.”

Inspection experts know the devil is in the details. The more accurate the imagery, the more agile the hardware, and the more exact the reporting, the easier it is to identify existing issues and prevent future crises. The professionals at Compliance EnviroSystems, LLC (CES) have used that insight to rise quickly in the sanitary sewer and storm drain evaluation industry.

Today’s municipalities don’t lack data; in fact, modern technologies provide scads of it. The key to effective utility management has become analyzing and assessing that information and using it to make critical operating and maintenance decisions. As municipal budgets continue to diminish and expectations continue to increase, municipalities have been creating tactical sewer asset management plans to better support their workloads. Such has been the case for the City of Vista Wastewater Division.