OMAHA, Nebraska (WOWT) – For the past three years, the city of Omaha has participated in a pilot initiative that installed cameras at its combined system overflow outflows.
Recently, the city council accepted a contract to buy additional.
“With the success that we have had with them, we decided to make this investment to purchase these cameras from the company that we were doing the pilot program with,” said Steve Anderson, Division Manager of Collection Systems and Flood Protection for the city of Omaha.
The cameras work as a monitoring system. They will send out an alarm to staff if there is an overflow during a wet weather event such as rain or snowmelt.
“When that happens, 24/7 we are sending folks out to reset our current devices and then document what they are seeing and reporting those to the NDEE,” Anderson told me. “This will allow us to do some of that work remotely.”
The gadgets provide photographs to provide a real-time image of what is happening, assisting in determining the appropriate response.
We’ve had circumstances where we go out every two weeks and examine these outfalls following rain events,” Anderson explained. “There have been occasions when there has been a water main break, a fire, and there is a lot of water, or a pool has been drained, and a lot of water enters the system, causing an overflow, and we may not be aware of it for two weeks. This will alert us in real time if that occurs.”
Cameras are put on the tops of manholes using a tension rod and inside the sewer itself.
“We would respond and make sure that outfall hasn’t been blinded that it is gonna function properly so that when the extra water is stopped that flow is going to the treatment plants,” Anderson went on:
Essentially, the cameras will assist keep effluent out of the Missouri River. These devices are used in cities such as Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield, Missouri. The project will cost $90,000, which includes the cameras as well as all of the necessary technology and communication equipment.
“There is lighting that occurs and then the communication system with it,” according to Anderson. “We will have a separate contract, or we’ll install them with our own resources depending on if we have the man power to do that at the time.”
Anderson said the objective is to have these battery-powered cameras operational by spring. Just in time for the wet season.