Have you ever borrowed something from a neighbor? Do you share something with a friend or family member?

Have you thought of sharing with your neighboring town? What if, several municipalities were to get together and share in the purchase of a sewer jetter? An interlocal agreement could be reached between multiple entities.

For example, 4 municipalities agree to purchase a jetter, with each taking advantage of the OMAG Sanitary Sewer Equipment Grant. A new single axle 400-gallon jetter is around $65,000. This breaks down to $16,250 for each of the 4 Municipalities. After the approval for an OMAG Sanitary Sewer Equipment matching grant up to 10k your cost is now $8,125, much more achievable than going alone.

Indoor location for winter storage/Maintenance/Repair costs/Emergency’s/Weekly rotating schedule all can be worked out with and interlocal agreement, which OMAG can assist in creating.

A good question to ask yourself. In a year how much would you be able to clean and improve your system? During the week of use, 8,000 to 10,000 linear feet of line could be cleaned, and over time that number will increase. In year you could clean 96,000 linear feet of sewer line on a 4-week rotation. You also could take part of your scheduled week and use it for preventive maintenance such as root treating known areas.

Without a jetter you are unable to clean lines or maintain them. You must rely on others to assist when you have a SSO or backup. Without maintenance and cleaning your system slowly continues to build up debris in the lines.

There are over 500 towns with a population less than 5,000 people, this is a way for you to team up with other towns to become better stewards of your wastewater system asset.

It is only through sharing and working together can this be achieved with many small municipalities. Don’t discount this or other similar ideas to provide you with a cost-effective way to care for your sanitary sewer system.