A Day in the Life: Public Works Utilities Worker
Edina Public Works is comprised of a team of professionals dedicated to maintaining the infrastructure that makes the city run. From repairing roads to fixing vehicles, the skilled workers at the Public Works & Park Maintenance Facility are asked to resolve a constant stream of problems using their technical aptitude.
Some Public Works employees are easier to spot in action, such as the Streets Division plowing during the winter or Park Maintenance cutting brush in the summer. Others provide behind-thescenes labor on services that the typical resident might not think twice about when using.
Who is responsible for maintaining the pipes for our drinking water? How can we ensure sewage water is draining properly? The answer to both is the Utilities Division.
Although the field covers a broad spectrum of tasks, the Utility Operators have three primary responsibilities: water, sewer and stormwater. The division currently consists of over a dozen full-time employees, including an Assistant Public Works Director specializing in Utility work.
The typical day of a Utilities worker can vary, as service needs and priorities are often dictated by seasonal challenges and unplanned maintenance situations.
Work can also vary depending upon the specialization of each employee. Some of the specific functions within Edina’s Utilities Division include water treatment, lift station maintenance, vehicle operation, locating, underground construction and water meter reading and installation.
Though no two days are the same, tasks such as managing sanitation water needs to be completed on a regular basis.
Edina’s Utilities Division runs several lift stations throughout the community, built to pump sewage to a higher elevation so gravity can eventually drain water downhill through the sewer system for treatment. The exterior of these buildings may look nondescript to the public, but their purpose is significant when it comes to keeping our community clean.
Whether it’s monitoring run-time (the time the pump spends actively pumping fluid), performing maintenance or removing non-sewage items, lift stations must be in good operating condition to provide dependable sewage disposal to the city and its residents.
“Lift station maintenance and being around sewage water is not something everyone enjoys doing,” said Utility Operator Josh Wagner. “There’s can be a lot of problem solving and electrical work involved with the control panel inside the lift station, but I like the challenge.”
Conducting routine maintenance on water storage structures is another primary responsibility for Utility Operators and is instrumental in providing residents with the most consistent water product. The City owns a total of 18 groundwater wells along with one ground reservoir and four water towers with a combined capacity of up to 7 million gallons.
Before clean water can be stored, however, it needs to pass through one of four City-operated water treatment plants. At these special facilities, water is collected, filtered and cleaned by Edina Utility Operators.
Operators add important chemicals such as chlorine, fluoride and polyphosphates at both treatment plants and wells to promote end-user health and keep pipes free of corrosion. Additionally, daily samples of cleaned water are taken to ensure that the chemical feed rate is within the strict parameters for consumption and usage.
Once the water is safe to be used, it is redistributed through underground pipes hidden from public view. Maintaining a network of pipes nearly 200 miles in length truly takes a team effort. In fact, on some days, Utility Operators can spend just as much if not more time working belowground than above.
It is often these pipelines that highlight the unpredictable nature of Utilities work. In some instances, the expansion or contraction of metal piping can result in subterranean watermain breaks requiring immediate attention. Because emergencies can happen any time, there is an on-call Utilities crew available to respond 24/7.
Of course, a day on the job wouldn’t be complete without some of the finest tools and equipment in the industry, and Edina’s Public Works Department has ensured that the Utilities Division is prepared for anything.
The Utilities Division operates several heavy-duty vehicles, including a vacuum truck (also known as a vac-con or jet-vac) used for cleaning out sewer lines through its suction technology. Vac-cons are also utilized to hydro-excavate around pipes and wires in the ground where it is hard to use a typical excavator, making the vehicle ideal for watermain breaks.
“I enjoy jetting sewers with our vac-con truck because it’s a measurable job,” said Wagner, who also operates Utility vehicles regularly. Whether it’s sewage or mud from a watermain break, you can really see the difference you make when you’re done.”
Another special vehicle used by the Utilities Division is a CCTV truck, which contains remote-controlled rovers rigged with camera equipment to detect defects in pipes ranging from 6 to 48 inches.
Utility Operators are subject to a wide range of jobs – from working on a variety of equipment to intense manual labor and troubleshooting. There are a lot of areas to grow in the field of utility work. “The other departments just don’t get that kind of variability when it comes to their daily schedule,” said Assistant Public Works Director Dave Goergen. “We’re always going to need these Operators to offer the basic commodities for health and life in Edina.”
“Working in Utilities is a huge responsibility, as they’re the ones delivering the valuable resources that 99.9% of Edina residents use every day,” said Brian Olson, Director of Public Works.
So, the next time you turn on the tap, take a shower or flush your toilet, remember that the City’s Utility Operators are the ones that make it happen.
For more information on the Public Works Department’s Utility Division, visit www.EdinaMN.gov/350/ Water-Sewer-Stormwater.