Cities rely on heavy equipment to accomplish a good deal of
the work that is done. We all think of
plow trucks and skid steer units. Breezy
Point has these and also a backhoe, tractor, loader and even a small bulldozer. Recently the City Council approved
the purchase of a mini-excavator. The
primary reason for this purchase is for working in the spray irrigation fields
for the city sewer.
Breezy Point is one of a few cities that discharge the sewer
effluent with spray irrigation rather than discharging into a body of water
such as a river, stream or lake. Some
spray irrigation systems are installed with a center pivot much like you see in
farm fields but the system we have relies on underground lines that run through
the woods. To these lines are many
standpipes that the support the spray irrigation heads. A pivot system would not work in our
situation because of the trees.
Underground piping is needed to support the standpipes.
The underground lines are much like the lines that feed the
sprinklers in a yard irrigation system.
These need to be drained each year in the fall to prevent freezing which
would rupture the pipe if water remained.
The city uses a rather large compressor to blow out these lines each
fall and generally speaking we have a good deal of success doing that but
periodically a small amount of water remains and the system develops a leak
from freezing. Obviously this requires
the line to be dug up to repair.
The irrigation system is also quite old and is starting to
show wear. The lines that were installed
are galvanized steel which eventually shows corrosion and leaks, also requiring
the line to be excavated to repair.
In the past the city has used the backhoe to do these
repairs but as the woods have grown the open lanes where the irrigation lines
have been installed are getting narrower and many times requires the removal of
trees to gain access. It was felt a
mini-excavator was a better tool to do the job being more efficient and allow
for a more dedicated use in making these repairs.
That’s not to say the mini-excavator will only be used in
the sewer irrigation fields. This piece
of equipment has a number of uses and will be used in landscaping projects and
digging graves or other appropriate uses making it a very versatile piece of
equipment. This is very apparent when we
have a small space to work in. Adding
this piece of equipment will help to improve the efficiency of our operations.
