A Return To Efficiency — 'Old Reliable' Comes Home To Rogue Valley Sewer Services In Oregon

Rogue Valley Sewer Services (RVSS), the special district charged with sanitary and stormwater management in the mostly rural area from Shady Cove to North Ashland in the Rogue River Valley of southern Oregon, serves 77,000 customers through 410 miles of pipe — 90 percent sanitary and the rest stormwater lines — 35 pump stations, 8,000 manholes, 2 solid wastewater lagoons, and the operation of Shady Cove wastewater treatment plant. Monthly flows average 500,000,000 gallons.

The Operations and Maintenance Department of RVSS routinely completes video inspection of its entire pipe system every 5 years, to find problems in the pipes before they become health hazards. They clean their entire system every 3 years to prevent blockage in and overflow out of their lines. In doing so, they’ve been able to keep repair costs down and maintain a lower-than-average monthly service fee to ratepayers. Their monthly residential service fee in fiscal year 2015-16 of $18.30 is one of the lowest in the state.

To keep this efficiency intact, RVSS generally cycles out its CCTV video inspection rigs every ten to fifteen years.

“We like to be sure we’re putting the latest and greatest equipment to work for our ratepayers, so we’re being as efficient as possible,” explains Rogue Valley’s CCTV Crew Leader, Kevan Kerby. “This keeps maintenance costs and downtime reasonable.”



When the time came last year to replace current technology, the Rogue Valley team took a good, hard look at their options. They had been a bit frustrated with their multi-conductor system “from Day One,” according to Kerby. “Right out of the gate, one of the main boards failed. We’d only get about a month out of the power and control cable, which cost $250. We were making so many repairs, I finally designed a guard to keep it working for 18 months.”

But the dread of constant breakdowns dogged him and his crews, who worked out of two CCTV trucks. The newer of the two systems uses multi-conductor technology and gave them trouble from the beginning. The older one, purchased from RS Technical in 2004, known to the crew as “Old Reliable,” because the equipment never gave them any trouble, uses Single Conductor technology. “Old Reliable” is a Ford E450 chassis with a 16-foot box, equipped with an RST mainline tractor and OMNI II camera and POSM inspection software on a Windows computer system.

So when it was time for the normal cycling out, Kerby longed to be able to feel the same confidence about the other truck. It’s a GMC chassis with a 17-foot box, outfitted with a multi-conductor mainline system for 8-24 inch pipe, another system for 6-10 inch pipe, a lateral launching system for 8- 24 inch pipe, and WinCan inspection software package.

Both trucks are important pieces of equipment Rogue Valley depends on for regular productivity, according to Kerby. “We run them all day long, every day,” with two-person crews, so it’s important that they just work.

“We realized the truck chassis were perfectly good, and only had about 40,000 miles on them,” he recalls. He approached his RST rep, our Regional Sales Manager Sheldon Teeples, about crunching some numbers that would allow Rogue Valley to save the chassis and simply retrofit the boxes with updated/upgraded CCTV equipment.

Teeples provided Rogue Valley with workable numbers for a retrofit, which pleased Kerby and his crews. “They’re laid out a little different (than they were), but they operate roughly the same…and no one else could touch the price we got from RST. Plus we love the single conductor cable. Damage that cable, you’re only out for 20-30 minutes, then back up and running in the field.”

Both chassis were completely stripped down and refitted with new cabinetry, new cables, controllers and monitors. Replacement equipment in both trucks included an RST Mainline & Lateral Inspection System for inspecting 6-24 inch mains and 4-8 inch laterals; a TranSTAR transporter with TrakSTAR camera for inspecting 6-30 inch mains; brand new PipeTech video inspection software and Windows computers. When the project was finished, everything was new except the sinks and wash-down systems.

Kerby is happy with how the process went. “It worked out real well for us to retrofit the trucks instead of buying all new ones. The equipment we took out we sold to a dealer, who sold it to a private company to replace existing equipment, which was a great reuse. He has lots of parts and knows what to expect from that manufacturer. And we saved a ton of money going with RST, essentially getting two whole new trucks for just over the price of one. We couldn’t be happier.”

Teeples says RVSS reports that they now produce a lot more footage than they ever did before. “Reliability of the equipment is just so much higher,” he says. “The other manufacturer's multiconductor truck had been down a lot, and RST repairs are generally a quarter the cost of the other company's repairs. The onboard diagnostics really make the difference there.”

And after the retrofit? So far, so good, says Kerby, especially concerning after-sale support. “We’ve had the trucks a year in October. We’ve had a couple little glitches, but RST has been great about getting us up and running. Most of what went wrong was on our end: We dropped one of our cameras and broke it, and they were quick to repair it. We damaged a couple launcher cables in learning how to use the lateral launch system properly.”

Tough jobsite conditions are merciless on equipment, and cables are often the first to show the wear, but Kerby is impressed with the durability of the RST single-conductor armored SinCon cable, with its 5400 lb. break strength and a 5-year manufacturer's warranty. He’s also impressed with the lateral launch camera cable, saying that even when they do actually break, they’re field-repairable, ensuring minimal downtime and increased productivity.

“Our neighboring city of Medford has another CCTV supplier, and I’ve heard they can’t do the repair to a lateral launch cable like we can in the field. We’re very happy. It’s very strong, stout equipment.”