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undefinedThe town of Okotoks, Alberta, Canada, relies on the Sheep River to provide drinking water for its nearly 30,000 residents, and so they remain vigilant about minimizing the amount of debris and sediment that flows to the river.
“Drinking water is pulled from the aquifer that is dependent on the river, so we always try to make sure that the quality of water that makes its way back is as clean as possible,” said transportation supervisor Peter McDowell, whose department oversees the town’s storm water management programs.
Double Duty
In 2018, the town of Okotoks purchased a Schwarze Industries A7 Tornado regenerative air street sweeper. The A7 has both street sweeping and catch basin cleaning capabilities, making it a multi-purpose addition for the town.
“We can use it as a street sweeper in the spring to get our street maintenance done, and after we’ve done that, we can switch it over and do catch basin maintenance,” McDowell said. “Our council appreciated that it’s a versatile piece of equipment.”
Currently, the town uses both the A7 and a mechanical sweeper to complete its street sweeping program, which began in April this year. “[The A7] complements the mechanical sweeper quite well with picking up more of the finer particles and thus preventing them from getting into our storm water system,” McDowell said.
Catch Basin Cleaning
After street sweeping was completed June 3, the town began to utilize the A7 for its second purpose: catch basin cleaning.
Before it purchased the regenerative air sweeper, the town used two methods to clean catch basins, neither of which were particularly effective, McDowell said. The first was a “big kind of spoon or shovel that we would lower down and scoop out the sediment,” which was then loaded onto a truck. “That would still leave some of the sediment behind,” he said. The second method was a hydrovac truck that only “worked marginally.”
With 2,000 catch basins to clean, the town needed a new solution, and that is where the A7’s suction hose feature is beneficial. In order to keep track of which catch basins need cleaning, the department leverages the ArcGIS Collector app to maintain accurate records. “The operators can inspect [the catch basin], go through and do a live update with the Collector app, and take a picture of the catch basin after it’s been cleaned, and then it goes into our records,” McDowell explained. Over the course of a season, operators were able to inspect approximately 800 catch basins and use the A7 to clean several hundred, he said.
Year-Round Benefits
In the winter, the town of Okotoks faces sub-zero air and surface temperatures and they rely on various sands and gravels for roadway traction.
“Being in a northern climate here, we use a variety of abrasives when we’re doing snow management in the wintertime,” McDowell said. These abrasives could impact water quality if they find their way into the river, so McDowell and his department use the A7 to capture them before they can make it into the river.
When purchasing a street sweeper, McDowell recommends municipalities consider the cost-effectiveness of buying a multi-purpose piece of equipment like the A7, which can be used year-round.
“It’s great that you can utilize that piece of equipment for two different jobs,” he said. “To be able to do storm water management [and] clean out catch basins—it’s a great way to utilize that machine, perhaps 12 months out of the year.”
To view a video case study of this article, or to learn more about how Schwarze street sweepers are a cost effective BMP for storm water management, visit http://schwarze.com/stormwater.
