HSB Sewer Department

The Huntington Sanitary Board sewer maintenance division consists of 16 union employees, two (2) field supervisors and is under the Board’s engineering department.

The sewer maintenance division is broken into two (2) groups, dig down repairs of manholes and lines, also cleaning /unstopping of sewer lines.

The dig down section consists of two (2) crews that include one (1) crew leader (heavy equipment operator), two (2) truck drivers/laborers and a pipe laborer. Some dig downs are in areas that dirt can be piled up and used as backfill material, if the size of the pipe or depth of excavation allows. In these conditions, three (3) men may be used as a crew. Most dig downs, located in streets and alleys, require that the excavated materials be removed from the site for reasons of space or not left because material is contaminated with sewage and could leach on to personal property or down city right of ways. While one (1) truck driver hauls away this material, he is also responsible for bringing to the site the pipe bedding and/or gravel to support the new pipe, haul in trench boxes and fill in the excavated area. Gravel must also be used to stabilize the street so traffic can resume as soon as this area is repaired and until the permanent street repair can be made.

The permanent repair requires that a dig down crew return to the site and dig out for a City of Huntington approved road or street repair, six (6) inches of blacktop or six (6) inches of concrete with rebar. All concrete repairs are done by Sanitary Board crew with City of Huntington crews doing the blacktop patching.

The field dig down crews have one (1) field supervisor. His job starts when the call is received and he makes his first visit to assess if it is our sewer problem and if a dig down is needed to make this repair. If it is determined that there is a problem and a dig down repair will have to be made, it will be put on a list and prioritized as to the order in which the dig down will occur. Main streets, alleys, and right-of-ways that might be used by an emergency vehicle or any repair that may cause greater property damage to either city property or private property are always moved to the “Immediate Need List.” Dig downs behind house sewers, on right-of-ways, or not on heavily traveled alleys or streets will go to the “General Repair List.”

This dig down supervisor is responsible for making sure all dig downs are called in to MISS Utilities to check for buried gas, water, electric or phone lines and marked by the utility company before the dig down crew arrives with the equipment to make the repairs.

The supervisor checks each work site daily to make sure all safety requirements for shoring and trenching are being followed and that the crews are following all Huntington Sanitary Board Construction Guidelines on making repairs and that all areas are left clean and made safe during and after the job is completed.

The Sanitary Board also has a line cleaning and inspection department. This section includes three (3) Vactors or high pressure cleaning trucks and a video inspections camera truck. These trucks work on a priority basis. Vactor #1 is to respond to immediate needs, such as stopped up sanitary main sewers or any call where a citizen has sewage backing up in a home or business. This crew will pull a downstream manhole to see if the flow is backed up or moving slowly, if either of these is occurring, the truck will then pull and clean out the next manhole and work on the line until it is flowing properly.

Vactor truck #2 works on lines where basement flooding may occur but will go down on its own slowly. This is caused by lines with build-up of gravel, trash or any obstructive materials that will block or slow the flow of sewage but has not completely stopped the flow off. This problem occurs frequently in sewers that run through alleys or any graveled lots. Keeping track of these areas and routinely cleaning these lines will many times stop a complete back-up of sewage that causes basement flooding or sewage to spill out of manhole onto streets or right-of-ways. Vactor #2 is also used to clean a sewer line so that it may be inspected by the sewer video camera. This camera runs on tracks and will not work properly if the lines have excessive grit, trash or heavy grease build-up.

The camera truck serves many functions to the sewer crews, such as finding the exact location of line breaks, old broken down taps, identifying the general condition of sewer lines, and helps to identify problems before they become dig downs or cause flooding in an area. This equipment has saved sewer crews many hours of dig down time and therefore thousands of dollars in material cost.

The third Vactor is now dedicated to storm water. This vactor takes all calls of stopped up catch basins, stopped up drain pipes, ditches, etc. Our records show that in 2002 554 catch basins were cleaned. The other vactors were sometimes pulled off sanitary lines during and/or after a storm and assisted with this type of work. Utilizing all four (4) trucks, a total of 1,118 catch basins were cleaned or unstopped and 23,224 feet of storm lines cleaned. (See attached sheet.)

Because of the nature of this work, i.e. lifting manhole lids, catch basin grates, etc. one (1) truck driver/operator and one (1) laborer must be assigned to each vactor truck.

A crew leader checks out calls for all three (3) vactor trucks. This employee is a 30-year Sanitary Board employee with vast knowledge of the City of Huntington sewer system, locations of manholes and location of lines. Part of his job is to first inspect the problem and in many cases of storm water call-in, just clean the grass, leaves, and trash off the cover and haul it off himself and save running a vactor truck all over town when it is not needed, therefore, saving time for jobs that need cleaning and lines opened up.

Breakdown of employees
Field Supervisor 2 people (1-Vactor and 1-Dig Downs)
Dig Down Crew #1 4 people
Dig Down Crew #2 4 people
Vactor #1 2 people
Vactor #2 2 people
Vactor #3 2 people
Vactor Crew Leader 1 person
Camera Truck 2 people
Needed to have full crews: 17 union employees
Presently HSB has: 16 employees
On Extensive Military Leave 2 employees
Total Work Force 14 employees

Field Department Equipment
Lately much has been made about the equipment and vehicles purchased by the Huntington Sanitary Board and although some pieces are new and in good working order, some have been in the fleet since 1988 and will need to be replaced sooner than later. Below is a breakdown of field department equipment and years of service.

Backhoe 35-39 1991
Backhoe 35-22 1989
Backhoe 35-23 1989
Vactor 35-05 1990
Vactor 35-60 2000
Vactor 35-61 2000
City Vactor currently on loan.
Dump Truck 35-59 2000
Dump Truck 35-65 2000
Dump Truck 35-06 1991 International Dump
Dump Truck 35-19 1987 Chevy Dump
Dump Truck 35-20 1987 Chevy Dump

Lot backhoe for loading shoring boxes, manhole pieces, gravel, etc. stays at sewer lot.

Although the Sanitary Board has the qualified people and the ability to install new catch basins, new storm lines and manholes, with the limited staff and number of sanitary line problems, these projects can not be undertaken at this time. The Huntington Sanitary Board storm water plan was to include the monies to hire field staff and materials to repair existing catch basins, storm lines and install new where needed.

I would be glad to answer any questions about how the work is done what has and needs to be done or explain how any of the processes that we are now using is accomplished.

Thank you,

Matthew Kirk
Manager of Inspections and Engineer Department
(304) 696-5564.