HomeMy WebLinkAboutItem 05.dAll in a day -
The Utilities Division is responsible for a variety of tasks from the production of
clean water to sanitary sewer cleaning. This is a look into typical daily
assignments for the Utilities staff.
Storm Catch Basin Cleaning
Storm sewer catch basins collect
just about everything that runs
down the gutter, from sand and
dirt to the odd car part.
Keeping the catch basins clean
is significant to the environment
and to the management of
surface water. Environmentally,
cleaning the catch basins keeps
dirt, sand, and other debris from
clogging streams, ponds, and -
drainage areas. This, in turn, leads to a
smooth and unhindered water flow
throughout the storm water system. It also
helps to prevent backups and flooding that
can result from heavy rains. During the
spring and summer, Street Division staff
checks each of the catch basins to see
which ones need cleaning. Utilities
Division staff follows with the sewer vactor,
sucking out everything in the catch basin
and leaving it clear of debris.
LAKEVILLE OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
Christopher Petree, Director
August 201 1
Hydrant Maintenance
Beginning each year in the spring,
Utilities Division staff exercise each
one of the 3,385 fire hydrants in
the City. They take special note of
those that are hard to operate and
a crew follows up to closely
inspect and repair the hydrant. In
some cases, the age of the
hydrant requires parts be replaced
just to bring it up to current
standards. In other cases, part
replacement becomes necessary
because the valve operating nut
won't turn and the rod has to
be rethreaded or the bottom
valve won't seat properly. Staff
removes the upper nozzle
section for cleaning and then
the rod and bottom m m valve, „ the
guts" of the hydrant, to replace
the upper portion of the rod.
Once reassembled, "the guts"
are put back into the hydrant.
Working by feel, the valve seat it
screwed in place and the
hydrant reassembled. Then the hydrant is flushed to
the new components. Ensuring hydrants operate properly
Fire Department when responding to fires.
Meter Change Out
Since mid -June, the Utilities
Division staff has been quietly
and effectively replacing some
older water meters in Lakeville
with new ones. In practical
terms, the service life of a water
meter is about 20 years. After
that time, depending on the
quality of the water, the meters
begin to lose accuracy in
registering the water flow. In
particular, they have a reduced
capability to register low flows
check the operation of
is essential for the
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that are indicative of small water leaks in the home plumbing system. For this
meter change out program, staff is both installing a new water meter and
running new wire out to a new touch pad on the side of the house. The new
wire will allow the City to more easily plan for the transition to new metering
technologies. The project started with a goal of replacing 400 water meters
and staff recently passed the 300 mark. They are averaging about six meter
replacements per day.
Locating Utility Structures
Paint marks and flags on the boulevard in
front of your house means that there is a
project planned in your yard or along your
street. Something that involves the utilities
buried under ground. In some cases, as
with the installation of a sign or a water
main repair, you will see an excavation. In
other cases, as with directional boring, you
may never see an excavation. However, the
location of underground utilities, from
electric and gas to telephone and television
to water and sewer, is extremely important.
Since the City has both a water and sewer
utility, it is responsible for locating those
structures within the area designated by
the locate request. The locate area can
be as small as a yard for the installation of
an irrigation system or a sign or it can be
several blocks long for the installation of a
fiber optic cable or the Cedar Avenue
project. The Utilities Division responds
daily to locate requests throughout the
City and averages about 8,000 locate
requests a year. Anyone planning to dig
within the City of Lakeville should call
Gopher State One Call at 811 and have
the underground utilities around their
site located before they take the first
shovel full of dirt out of the ground.
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Water Treatment Facility Operations
Most of the work done by the
utilities staff happens outside,
but some vitally important tasks
dealing with water production
happen inside the Water
Treatment Facility each day.
One of the staff has the daily
responsibility to see that each
component of the water
treatment process is functioning
properly and that clean water is
distributed to all of the City's
customers. Among those
responsibilities are the routine
tasks, such as checking the Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition system to
make sure it is receiving data from all 17
wells and 5 water towers, the technical,
such as verifying chemical feed rates and
adjusting as necessary; and the
mechanical, such as repairing the
chlorine feed system that is key to the
iron removal for which the treatment
process was designed. It may not be a
glamorous job or out in front of the
public every day, but the production of
clean, potable water is as important as
any other facet of utility operations.
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