Crew chief Doug Latham (left) and maintenance worker Dean LeBret help bring a coworker aboveground after performing maintenance in the sewer line.
When it rained in Sweet Home, Oregon, flow to the local treatment plant could reach 22 times dry-weather flow.
Sweet Home is nestled in central Willamette Valley, about 100 miles south of Portland, near the foothills of the Cascade Range. The utility serves around 3,200 customers with an 8.5-square-mile service area, 64 miles of pipe, and 1,020 manholes. And they get plenty of rain — some 45 inches per year on average.
I&I was a huge problem for the aging collections...
