The American camera crew has rolled into town to get up close and personal with Innisfail. Instead of an in-depth documentary or a cheep location for a Hollywood feature film, the footage captured here will help the town save a boatload on its sewage bills. Instead of giant lights and reflectors to soften the look of larger-than-life stars, this camera equipment comes complete with a wiper to clean the lens of passing “floaters.”
Guided by a human hand not far away, a robotic camera surveys the pipes beneath the town providing a blueprint for new polyethylene-based sewer main lining.
“Sometimes you'd be crawling through the line and someone would decide to use the service,” said John Torres, a TV technician from Colorado with Insituform Technologies.
The town's Infiltration Reduction program aims to achieve savings by undertaking significant improvements to existing sewage infrastructure before joining the regional wastewater system.
Over the next decade Innisfail will need millions of dollars in upgrades to its sewer mains. But because the town can't dig up a road every time it wants to improve a section of pipe, crews have begun to reline underground pipes section by section.
“Over the last 15 years we've spent a lot of money replacing the water mains,” said Utilities Foreman Terry Ell. “But we haven't been replacing the sewer mains.”
Not only are old cast-iron pipes cracking, but because they are sitting in sandy soil, water seeps in easily. While an average day might see 5,000 cubic metres of water flowing, Ell said, this fluctuates wildly.
“All of a sudden it rains and it starts doubling and tripling,” he said, noting at about $2 a cubic metre that can add up quickly.
Pipes getting an update this go around are sections along 47 Avenue between 49 and 47 streets, 48 Avenue between 40 and 44 streets, 49 Avenue between 44 and 50 streets, and 51 Avenue between 40 Street and 41 Street Close.
“A lot of this pipe is pretty cracked up,” said Insituform Lead Supt. Eric Gustavus. “It could collapse and cause sewer back-ups.”
Following surveying, a separate team inserts a custom-made felt liner with the special resin coating the inside.
Steam is used to activate the hardening properties of the polyethylene substance.
“It's one seamless, continuous piece after we line it,” Torres said. “It keeps out infiltration and ground water and it also keeps sewage out of the water.”
Finally, holes are cut in the new tubing where the pipe branches off.
The town expects it may be able to afford to take on $400,000 worth of Infiltration Reduction next year.
