"Manhole Diving for Walla Walla”
Here's the story behind the September PNCWA Photo of the Month:
Ben Haws (AKA “Hawesome”) climbs down a sewer manhole to install one of several flow meters in the City of Walla Walla.
This wasn’t the most exciting aspect of his career, but it was an important part needed for the calibration of the City’s sewer collection system model. Walla Walla’s sewer collection system is over 150 miles of gravity pipe and serves a population of 32,000 residents. The meters captured sewer flows and real time storm events to measure inflow and infiltration, which was used in the model to project the impact of future growth, demands, and storm events. The model was part of a larger effort in identifying and recommending improvement projects as part of Walla Walla’s General Sewer Plan. With an aging infrastructure and relatively high groundwater and many streams, the City has been proactively engaged in creating an action plan to budget rehabilitation based on priorities of hydraulic needs, condition of the pipe, and risk of failure factors.
Ben Haws is a former PNCWA Section President (Yakima Valley Section), and a P.E. with J-U-B Engineers in Kennewick, Washington. When he isn’t climbing down manholes, he can usually be found in the office designing water quality solutions for local clients. Sometimes on a cold day, climbing down into a cozy warm manhole doesn’t sound too bad.