Via PIxabay.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
JULY 26, 2024 | Remember the problems in some big cities of water mains breaking? When this happened, streets flooded out of out of control for hours and sometimes days. Think of all that wasted clean water!
One of the reasons this happened was because many city water systems and mains were very old, and in all probability weren’t maintained as they should have been. But in Gwinnett, though there will always be occasional water main breaks because of routine circumstances, there have routinely been very few breaks here. Part of the reason is because the Gwinnett water mains are not very old, the majority having principally been built in the last 30 years.
There’s another reason: The county’s water and sewer fund is financially healthy, providing continuing dollars to maintain the system properly. A recent release concerning the water mains reads:
“The Department of Water Resources will begin work on two water system improvement projects as part of an ongoing water main replacement program. Just over half a mile of water mains will be replaced along Ridgedale Way and several cul-de-sacs in the Ansley Brook Subdivision located southwest of Lawrenceville at a cost of $1.4 million. Additionally, about a half a mile of water mains will be replaced along Bristol Lane and Nelson Dive southeast of Duluth at a cost of a little more than $828,300. Commissioners awarded both contracts to GS Construction, Inc.”
It was a small announcement and small projects. Yet it shows how deliberate the Gwinnett Department of Water Resources goes about its work.
We contacted the office of Rebecca Shelton, who has led the Department of Water Resources since 2023. She outlined a few of the reasons Gwinnett has few water main breaks, which primarily consists of continued maintenance of the system. A few ways this is done:
- Gwinnett Water Resources has advanced GIS (Geographic Information Service) and uses asset management software that tracks location, age, material, and size of the entire water distribution system;
- GIS software is available to field crews live, in the trucks, at all times;
- Gwinnett has a very young water distribution system, with over half of the pipes installed within the last 30 years;
- Gwinnett implements an extensive valve exercising and inspection program that confirms valve locations, limits time to make necessary repairs, and limits the number of people impacted by a maintenance need; and
- Gwinnett keeps a large inventory of repair materials on hand and readily available.
There’s more, in that Gwinnett uses modern techniques, such as snaking cameras in the mains. Gwinnett maintains closed circuit TV cameras mounted to remote control vehicles and that are highly specialized to handle the harsh environment inside a sewer pipe. The robotic vehicle can turn, tilt, lift and zoom the camera to make a visual inspection of the inside of a sewer pipe.
Using these tools, Gwinnett can respond to maintenance needs before failures occur. These closed circuit television system camera vehicles are NEVER used in the potable water distribution system, since the water mains are pressurized.
- Have a comment? Click here to send an email.
Follow Us