Eric Price with the Envirosight Rovver X sewer inspection crawler.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

VERNON - It rolls past cracks, gnarly tree roots, wads of grease, spiders — and, yes, the odd bit of poo — on its underground mission through the storm and sewer pipes of Vernon.

The Envirosight Rovver X sewer inspection crawler is, as utilities construction supervisor Sean Irwin describes it, “basically a remote controlled car" that goes where people can't. 

The equipment — including the van, camera and software — was a $277,000 investment by the City of Vernon to help it get a better picture of what’s going on underground. And it’s important work, says infrastructure management technician Geoff Mulligan.

“A lot of our infrastructure is quite old and reaching the end of its useful life in the next 20 years or so,” Mulligan says. “What we’re looking for with the camera is defects in the pipe — cracks, holes, roots — that cause problems. It helps us be better informed and make better decisions about where to prioritize.”

With roughly 400 kilometres of storm and sanitary pipe in the City of Vernon, crews are hoping to assess 17 km a year with the new equipment, which is expected to pay for itself in about six years.

To use the rover, city crews first have to flush the pipe to clear away “debris.” The camera then gets lowered down through a manhole, and an operator controls in remote controls the rest of its journey.

Sean Irwin and Geoff Mulligan, with Eric Price and Dylan Rennie, on 23 Street April 18, 2018.

(CHARLOTTE HELSTON - REPORTER / iNFOnews.ca)

The rover navigates a variety of pipes, some of which were installed back in the 1940s when clay tile was the material of choice, Irwin says. Nowadays, pipes are typically made of PVC.

“The clay is actually some of the nicest pipe in the city. If it’s installed properly, it’s actually quite durable,” he says.

Aside from spiders and tree roots, there are things you might not expect hanging out in the sewers.

“There was a kitten one year,” Irwin says. “Somebody called in and said ‘there’s meowing coming out from a storm drain.’ We had ducklings another year,” he says.

There’s also jewellery and sometimes bits of pocket change, but nothing “worth fishing for” Irwin says.

Some of the most concerning things are wads of grease, wet wipes and feminine products that shouldn’t have gone down the drain in the first place.

“It can block mains and then people back up and you have property damage,” Irwin says.

He says the city hasn’t found a “fatberg” (the name for a 130 ton mass of waste removed from a sewer in London) but there are similar issues.

“Sure, we have miniature fatbergs,” Irwin says.

— This story was updated at 6:12 a.m. April 19, 2018 to add a video. 

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