Balancing the bandwidth of essential utilities can be like walking a tightrope. Employee salaries, equipment costs and a variety of operational expenses are just a few of the bandwidth constraints municipalities face. To mitigate these constraints, water utilities are turning to digital, cloud-based solutions that not only help cut down time per inspection but also eliminate various manual tasks. With the help of AI and integrated technology, utilities can do more with the employee bandwidth and equipment they already have.
Condition assessment standards help sewer teams find a common, shared language to determine the health of sewer infrastructure. These standards, and the coding schemes associated with them, can differ from one region to the next. However, they all share the same goal of translating the results of sewer inspections into easily understood data to ensure operation and maintenance decisions are well-informed.
Many wastewater departments rely on grant funding to outfit inspection teams with the resources they need. These funds come from a variety of different sources and cover the costs of essential sewer rehab and maintenance operations.
When disaster strikes a municipality, it can destroy decades of work on infrastructure and place communities at continued risk for years to come. With the increase in extreme weather events, municipalities need an all-encompassing emergency response plan. Environmental crises can quickly destroy a wastewater system’s integrity, resulting in dangerous conditions for surrounding roadways and homes. This also leads to costly repairs that disrupt annual maintenance requirements and inspection timelines, creating a rippling effect that can disrupt a community for years.
Pipeline Assessment Certification Program (PACP) is a standardized system for coding sewer pipe inspection footage. At its core, PACP functions as a consistent language for wastewater professionals to use across all assessment activities, and it ensures that maintenance and management are completed quickly and properly.
Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) are computer systems that collect, store, manage and analyze data relevant to precise locations on Earth. They are the backbone of humankind’s most powerful mapping solutions, and they allow us to gather accurate information about the location of infrastructure in real-time.
Fats, oils and grease, also known as FOG, is one of the most harmful types of waste flushed down the drain. The primary source of FOG is cooking and food preparation, and while residential homes are significant contributors, commercial restaurants and manufacturing plants are actually the biggest source. Most restaurants produce FOG constantly due the nature of their work. While many dispose of it properly via a trash can or recycling program, FOG still makes its way down into the sewers at an alarming rate.
When your primary focus is sewer inspections, it’s easy to lose sight of wastewater’s intended destination: a treatment plant. Wastewater treatment is the process of removing organic and inorganic matter, chemicals and other pollutants from water, ensuring it is clean and safe for discharge into the local environment.
Sewer systems require regular inspections and maintenance to ensure they function at peak efficiency. But who is actually responsible for the labor involved in sewer upkeep?
The collection and transportation of wastewater to treatment plants is an essential task of public infrastructure, but what exactly is wastewater? In the broadest sense, wastewater is any water that has been put through residential, commercial or industrial use. But depending on the surrounding environment, wastewater may include any varieties of runoff that finds its way into sewer mains, and when mixed with the endless variety of human, animal and industrial waste produced by local residents and businesses, the result is a potentially toxic concoction that has as much potential to harm the local environment as it does to be cleaned and made into new drinking water.
