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The Reality of Sewer Inspections—Everything You Need to Know
# The Truth About Sewer Inspections – All You Should Know
Sewer inspections play a critical role in maintaining sewer systems, whether they belong to cities or individual households. Discover more about how these inspections are carried out and why they matter.
## Why Sewer Inspections Matter
Sewer inspections are essential for ensuring the smooth operation of sewer networks. Problems in these systems can escalate rapidly, leading to emergencies such as water—or even raw sewage—overflowing into places it shouldn't.
City sewer inspections involve sending specialized inspectors into large pipes and other parts of the wastewater infrastructure to pinpoint the source of issues. These inspections help prevent major disasters by addressing problems early.
In cases where the assets being inspected are spacious enough for a person to enter, drones like the Elios 3 are increasingly being used instead of human inspectors. These drones provide visual data to help diagnose problems or confirm that everything is functioning correctly.
This article will walk you through the basics of sewer inspections and drainage assessments, including the primary reasons for conducting them, the differences between home and city sewer inspections, the most common methods used for city sewer inspections, and how indoor drones are enhancing the efficiency of the process.
## Two Main Reasons for Sewer Inspections
During sewer inspections, inspectors typically gather visual data to assess the condition of sewer pipes or other components of the wastewater infrastructure. There are two main reasons for carrying out these visual inspections:
### Reason 1: Fixing Sudden Emergencies
This is one of the most common triggers for sewer inspections, whether they occur in residential settings or city-wide networks.
When something goes wrong with your sewer system, it's often evident from external signs, but identifying the exact cause requires an inspection. For instance, at home, you might notice water backing up in sinks or bubbling in toilets. On a larger scale, a city might see sewage unexpectedly appearing in bodies of water.
In both scenarios, immediate action is needed to locate and resolve the issue.
### Reason 2: Routine Maintenance
Sewer inspections are also conducted preemptively as part of regular maintenance routines for wastewater infrastructure. As sewer systems age globally, their likelihood of failure increases annually. Cities worldwide perform routine inspections alongside cleaning schedules to maintain their sewer networks effectively.
Check out this video showing how drones assist in routine sewer inspections:
Curious about how frequently cities conduct maintenance activities, including sewer inspections, in the U.S.? Here’s a breakdown provided by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE):
## Home vs. City Sewer Inspections
The core objective of a sewer inspection is to examine the state of a sewer system visually, regardless of whether it serves a single household or an entire city. However, there are notable differences between home and city sewer inspections.
### Home Sewer Inspections
A home sewer inspection generally involves running a camera attached to a snake line, also known as a sewer scope, through the house's pipes. These inspections serve the same purposes as city inspections: either to address an urgent issue, like a flooded kitchen, or to preemptively identify potential problems before they worsen.
As the inspector extends the snake line, the camera captures footage inside the pipe. This video is analyzed to determine causes of issues such as pipe cracks, root intrusion, clogs, or structural collapses.
Note: Using a camera to traverse pipes is also referred to as a sewer lateral inspection.
### City Sewer Inspections
City sewer inspections form a crucial component of urban water management. Like home inspections, their aim is to gather visual data to evaluate the condition of sewer system pipes.
However, city sewer inspections are far more extensive and intricate than those conducted at homes. One reason is that the pipes under scrutiny are significantly larger—large enough for a person to enter them.
Traditionally, inspectors had to physically enter these pipes equipped with flashlights to manually assess their conditions. New technologies now enable inspectors to obtain high-quality visual data without needing to physically access the pipes—more details follow in the section about drones aiding sewer inspections.
## Techniques Used in City Sewer Inspections
Here are the primary methods employed in city sewer inspections:
- Visual inspections
- CCTV inspections
- Camera inspections
- Lamping inspections
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### Visual Inspections
Inspectors personally enter pipes to examine them with a flashlight.
Visual inspections can also involve examining the surroundings of a pipe or other elements of wastewater infrastructure.
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### CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) Inspections
CCTV is commonly utilized for narrower pipes (4-48 inches in diameter) that are too small for an inspector to enter.
In a larger sewer system, a remotely operated CCTV camera and its accompanying lights are mounted onto a raft, which is then floated between manholes inside a pipe while the camera rotates vertically and horizontally for comprehensive coverage. In smaller sewers, the camera and lights can be attached to a sled.
The output of a CCTV camera is a video recording containing visual data about the pipe's condition. After collecting this data, inspectors review it to thoroughly inspect the pipe and deduce necessary maintenance requirements.
High-end CCTV cameras offer features like:
- Automatic and manual focus
- Manual zoom up to 40x (optical and digital)
- Iris control
- Directional lighting options for pipes ranging from 6†to 48†in diameter
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### Camera Inspections
Camera inspections can similarly employ a method akin to CCTV inspections, placing a camera on a raft or sled and floating it along within the pipe.
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### Lamping Inspections
A lamping inspection entails lowering a camera into a maintenance hole and positioning it at the junction where the sewer line meets the manhole opening.
With this setup, inspectors collect visual data from inside the pipe and analyze it afterward.
Lamping inspections yield the lowest quality of visual data, so they are typically reserved for low-priority pipes (usually newer ones, less than 20 years old) or projects with severely constrained budgets.
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## How Indoor Drones Are Transforming City Sewer Inspections
Indoor drones are reshaping sewer inspections, enabling inspectors to enhance safety, cut costs, and respond faster to emergencies.
Here are three ways indoor drones are assisting industrial sewer inspections.
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### 1. Safety
By eliminating the need for inspectors to physically enter confined, potentially dangerous spaces, drones designed for confined environments like the Elios 3 are safeguarding inspectors and improving overall safety during sewer inspections.
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### 2. Cost Efficiency
Removing the requirement for human entry into pipes makes sewer inspections far more efficient, reducing unnecessary expenses and helping municipalities achieve substantial savings.
Péter Kövessi, Director of Client Services at Flind—a firm overseeing Barcelona’s extensive sewer infrastructure—estimates that drone-assisted sewer inspections are twice as efficient as traditional human inspections and 40% cheaper per meter of inspection.
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### 3. Enhanced Data Quality
The Elios 3 generates 3D models of assets in real-time, offering more detailed data and superior documentation for inspectors.
For the City of Lausanne, the Elios 3’s 3D maps accurately pinpoint the exact geographical locations of defects discovered during water department inspections, allowing inspectors to revisit these spots for ongoing defect monitoring.
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## The Future of Sewer Inspections: Drones
The truth is that sewer inspections can be demanding and unappealing tasks. With advancements in drone technology and precise LiDAR scans, completing these inspections remotely has become simpler. This shift brings advantages not only in terms of safety and cost savings but also in boosting employee retention, as working with cutting-edge technology is both engaging and innovative for inspectors.
Looking ahead, expect to see more drones or remote tools being adopted for sewer inspections. Learn more about the ultimate sewer drone, the Elios 3, to understand how this technology is already in use worldwide.
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This article has provided an overview of sewer inspections and the role drones are playing in transforming this field. If you have any questions or would like to explore further, feel free to reach out!
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