By Shannon Lukens.

 

The City of Steamboat Springs is doing routine inspections to underground stormwater treatment facilities. That means they’re looking in manholes and inspecting what’s in there. Tim Maxwell is with Baseline Engineering, who has been contracted to do the work by the city.

“It removes contaminants and pollutants from the stormwater runoff in the community before it discharges into the Yampa River.”

 

Each manhole will be inspected to see if it needs cleaning. They put something called a Sludge Judge into the bottom of the vault to see how deep the sediment has accumulated. It can go down about 8-10’. If it needs to be cleaned out and it’s on private property, the property owner is responsible to hire a company that vacuums out the sediment.

The inspections are done every five years, and are required by city’s storm water program, as regulated by the state.