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The Isle of Wight County Utility Services Department is requesting assistance from Windsor customers as it makes repairs and improvements to the Town of Windsor Sewer System during the month of June.

The department recently released a Sanitary Sewer Vacuum System Notification that begins as follows: 

“The Isle of Wight County Utility Services Department will be working on the Town of Windsor Sewer System beginning the first week of June to make repairs. It is anticipated that this work will take up to four weeks to complete. During that time, it will be necessary for the Vacuum Station to be shut down and utilize vacuum pumping trucks to ‘clean-out’ sewer ‘Pod’ collection points across the town.

“We are asking our Windsor customers to assist us in minimizing the volume of waste flowing into the sewer particularly during the hours of 9 p.m. through 6 a.m. This can be done by limiting shower durations, fewer washing machine loads and limiting the free running of water in sinks. These kinds of efforts could dramatically reduce costs and complications during this time.”

In a Thursday, June 5, interview Isle of Wight County Director of Utilities Services Uwe Weindel said his department has already started its work on the town sewer system.

“But we have not done any service interruptions yet,” he said. “That won’t probably come for another week.”

Weindel affirmed that the work on the town sewer system, in this instance, involves the installation of a valving system that will allow for repair of future breaks or for execution of routine maintenance without having to shut down the entire town sewer system. Instead, the valving system will make it so part of the sewer system will be able to be shut down for repair/maintenance, proceeding zone by zone.

“We have four zones in Windsor, so the idea here is that we can isolate zones when we need to,” Weindel said, adding that the present setup does not allow for this.

The Sanitary Sewer Vacuum System Notification included the following background information on the town’s sewer system:

“The sewer system for the town of Windsor is not a traditional sewer where waste flows by gravity to a pump station and then (is) pumped from that location for treatment. The Windsor system ‘sucks’ waste from ‘Pods’ located near every few home locations and businesses across the town, where it is then collected at a single Central Pump Station. This system has been in place for decades and is beginning to experience problems from the ‘wear and tear’ of age and use.

“To perform any repairs to the Central Pump Station or any sewer vacuum lines, the entire Town Vacuum Pump Station System must be shut down. During these down times, sewage would have to be pumped out from each ‘Pod’ individually.”

Weindel affirmed that while the town sewer system is shut down, vacuum pumping trucks will be doing the job of the system, as needed.

“At this point in time, we’re hoping not to have that, but we have to keep that as a reserve just in case it actually comes down to that,” he said. “But yes, what (the trucks) would be doing is going from ‘Pod’ to ‘Pod’ to kind of clean out so as not to create an overflow or anything.”

Weindel affirmed that the reason for encouraging Windsor customers to limit shower durations, washing machine loads and free running of water in sinks between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. is to reduce the volume of waste that these vacuum pumping trucks will need to clean out of the “Pods” while the repair/upgrade work is going on.

And Weindel made clear that the work in June will be done on weekdays, not weekends.

“Monday through Thursday would be about our limit,” he said.

So with the Town of Windsor Sewer System operating on the weekends in June, the call for citizen conservation will be focused on the 9 p.m.-6 a.m. periods of weekdays.

The final section of the Sanitary Sewer Vacuum System Notification is titled “The Future” and includes some of the details already mentioned while adding some new ones. It reads as follows:

“To prepare for future breaks or even routine maintenance, the Isle of Wight Utility Services Department will begin modifications to the Central Pump Station with the plan to install a valving system that will allow only portions of the town system to be shut down for future repairs and maintenance. To accomplish this, the next step will be a system-wide shutdown to install/convert this new valving into the system.

“During this and future construction phases, a labor-intensive effort will be necessary for the Utilities Department to have those ‘Pods’ across the town pumped out by vacuum trucks on a recurring basis. Minimizing the volume of wastewater will dramatically reduce the time and potential for complications during these shutdown periods. We would also ask that the ‘Pods’ be accessible, free from parked vehicles or other items should we need to access them.

“The Isle of Wight Utility Services Department thanks you for your consideration during this event. For questions regarding this notice, please contact the project manager at 757-357-8084.”

Weindel said his department will install the new valves zone by zone.

“So there will be a total shutdown of the system for about four days, if we can get them done one zone a night, but after that, everything will be back on to normal,” he said. 

He indicated that the new valving system will help improve efficiency and save money.

“It will create a better efficiency because of the fact that we won’t have to use ‘Pods’ and extend a lot of manpower to take care of the system during a routine maintenance, or let’s say even if there is a problem on one of the zones, it won’t affect the entire system,” he said. “So there is a cost savings to it, but there’s also an efficiency.”