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I n s i d e Arden Hills, MN . 55112-5734 Rice Creek Commons moves ahead New dog park open at Perry Park Election information Arden Hills has an Olympic medal winner ECR-WSS PRST STD U.S. Postage Paid Twin Cites, MN Permit #1962 Once lines are cleaned, Public Works inspects the lines via a robotic camera. The camera is about six inches in diameter by two feet long and takes motion pictures as it travels down the sanitary sewer line. Public Works is looking for anything that may need maintenance, including cracked linings, roots intrusion, sags in the line, and misaligned joints. Roots can be removed, but some of the other items may require digging up the sewer line in order to per- form needed repairs. Some of the sanitary sewer lines are old and made of older materials, even clay in some cases. These older lines are on a maintenance schedule to be relined in place. This process installs a liner without having to dig up the road to reach the line. Sanitary sewer lines flow downhill by gravity and with our many hills there is ample ability for the sewer to flow. The dif- ficulty comes when the wastewater reaches the bottom of the hill. The solution is a lift station that pumps the water uphill so that it can continue to flow down the next hill. Arden Hills has 14 lift stations. Our lift stations appear as concrete platforms with electrical boxes on the platform. Most are visible from City streets, but some are in remote locations. Postal Customer People are familiar with City water service. We purchase water from St. Paul, put it in one of two City water towers and deliver it to your home or busi- ness via a pressurized waterline. The water is available when you turn on the faucet, the shower or flush the toilet. What you may not be as familiar with is what hap- pens to the wastewater when it leaves your home or business and just what the City does every day to make that happen. The wastewater as it leaves your home or business ends up in the City sanitary sewer, what most of us would simply call the sewer. This is not to be confused with road runoff that drains into catch basins which empty into what is called the storm sewer, what most of us would simply call the storm drain. The two are not physically connected but they share similar names and are both located in the street. Sewer lines are located deep beneath the manhole covers which are generally locat- ed in the middle of the street. I sometimes get asked what Public Works is doing with the large truck parked in the middle of the street. The large truck is called “The Jetter” and it is the largest vehicle in the City fleet, even making our snow plows look small. The Jetter is used to wash the inside of the sewer line. Our goal is to clean sanitary sewer lines every three years. If the lift station stops functioning for an extended period of time, there is the pos- sibility of wastewater backup, also known as a sewer backup. One type of wastewa- ter backup is when the lift station does not pump wastewater over the next hill. Eventually wastewater fills the line and the pressure from uphill wastewater, can force wastewater into homes at the bottom of the hill. To ensure that our lift stations are functioning properly, they are electroni- cally monitored and an onsite inspection is done daily. This is one of the reasons you may see a City vehicle out on the week- ends. The physical inspection ensures that if something is wrong that the electronic monitoring has not yet reported, Public Works becomes aware and can take appro- priate corrective action. In the event of a power outage, the City has backup genera- tors that can be deployed to lift stations. Our sanitary sewer reaches an interceptor that takes the wastewater to the Metropoli- tan Wastewater Treatment Plant in St. Paul. There several steps are taken to clean the wastewater before it can eventually be re- leased to public waters owned by the State. The costs of cleaning, inspecting, repair- ing, monitoring, lining, and operating the sanitary sewer are included in utility bills. Operating and maintaining the sanitary sewer may not be as visible as other Public Works functions, but it is an important City Service. Sincerely, David Grant Mayor News from the Mayor’s office The line down under... What is it? This gadget is a robotic camera. It crawls through the City’s sanitary sewer lines. The images it sends help the City monitor the condition of the utility.