An operator for the
city of Des Moines
Public Works
Department uses a
Komatsu WA250-3
wheel loader on a
street reconstruction
project.
Teamwork is most noticeable “when we get into an emergency situation,” Stowe continued. “When there’s a snowstorm or a flood or a windstorm, everybody gets together and we work as one. There is no division between sewer, sanitation or streets at that point. The city is in good hands, and not just those of the division managers, but those of the 150 people behind each of us as well.”
Five links
Stowe listed the “five links” he and his team are responsible to keep up and running. “The streets, sewers, sanitation, the treatment plant and the garage are the five major links of this process,” he noted. “They all come with a variety of needs, from infrastructure maintenance to management needs, and each specialty has a host of equipment associated with it.
“The Public Works Department has responsibilities for hundreds of miles of collection system in the city of Des Moines for our 200,000 residents,” said Stowe. “That includes the treatment of waste water that goes to a regional facility serving not only Des Moines, but all of our Des Moines-area suburbs as well — West Des Moines, Windsor Heights, Urbandale, Pleasant Hill and seven others. That’s about 450,000 customers on the waste water side.
As sewer operations manager, Jay Bennett is in charge of managing the collection system and the waste water treatment plant. “Between the sanitary combined and the storm, it’s close to 1,200 miles of pipe in the ground,” said Bennett, a 23-year veteran who started off his career as a garbage collector for the city.
RMS Territory Manager
Ron Mason stands next
to Elgin Pelican Series P
sweepers. The city of
Des Moines Public
Works Department
utilizes a fleet of 10
Pelican sweepers to
keep city streets clean.
Before he became sewer operations manager, Bennett managed the waste water treatment plant’s maintenance program. “It was just kind of a logical choice to move up the pipe, so to speak, from the treatment plant to the collection system,” he noted.
Public perception
“The biggest issue we deal with in the sewer department is the public perception that there’s no problem with the sewer — at least until they either have a backup in their basement or they have to drive through a pond area that overflowed from the storm sewers,” stated Bennett.
“We also maintain 52 lift stations around the city,” he continued. “Most of those are on the sanitary side, but they’re getting to where they’re split pretty evenly now, because there are pump stations that move sewage waste water from one area of town all the way across the city and sometimes across the county to a treatment facility.
“That’s the challenge,” Bennett noted. “The majority of the sewers are older — we have some that date back to 1929. It’s not only handling the sanitary, but also the storm water drainage. They’re the biggest problem, and the amount is so great that you can’t address everything you want to within a five- or 10-year plan. Our biggest issue is trying to maintain that within budget constraints.”