Snaking hoses: Sewer lines receive annual cleaning.

Byline: CITY BEAT/EUGENE By Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Eugene residents these days may see big white trucks with large, cylindrical tanks rumbling around their neighborhoods. Less noisy, but still noticeable, are people in green T-shirts pulling hoses around backyards.

The trucks and four-person crews are from the Public Works Maintenance division. They are engaged in a regular summer task: keeping the city's 770 miles of sanitary sewer lines free of obstacles that could cause nasty sewer backups into bathrooms and kitchens.

On a recent afternoon in the south hills, Ed Reynolds, Rick Perrott, Jake Bennett and Drew Gottfried pulled long lines of high-pressure water hoses down hillsides and around trees and shrubs.

The men lead the hoses to sewer line openings, accessible through manholes. The hoses have a rotary saw attached to an end, and are inserted in pipes. As the hoses are pulled backward through the pipes, the powerful streams of water spin the saw blades, clearing the pipes of tree roots, grease and other obstacles. Water flushes the debris away.

Public works crews get to sewer lines in city streets easily. But they also must clean the lines in public easements on private property. Many of these are located in the south hills, where the lines are buried in and near backyards.

Crews use bright orange-colored door hangers to inform homeowners before the work takes place. Sometimes, city employees must work in fenced backyards to reach pipes in public easements. In those cases, public works asks homeowners to call 682-4800 to make arrangements.

"We wouldn't want to let a dog out," said Russ DeLess, wastewater maintenance supervisor.

Most homeowners cooperate, but a few object to having city employees walking around their properties, he said. "You have an eclectic mix of people in Eugene. Some people don't like what they consider government intrusion, and you have a hard time getting them to return your call," DeLess said.

Keeping sewer lines clear is important for homeowners and the city, he said.

Compared with 20 years ago, the maintenance division has reduced the number of plugged lines and sewer backups, DeLess said. In the mid 1980s, there were 75 to 80 plugs a year, he said. Now, there are fewer than 20 annually. The maintenance, coordinated with the help of a computer program, is the main reason for the improvement, he said.

These days, most plugs are caused by vandalism or by utility crews accidentally breaking pipes, DeLess said.

Public works crews can tell which sanitary sewer and storm sewer lines may get stopped up even before hoses are put in pipes. Specially made video cameras are put on the end of hoses and inserted in lines to give a look inside.

The cameras' bright lights regularly startle sewer-dwelling rats and other creatures, DeLess said. The scenes, captured on videotape, often show rats tentatively approaching the cameras, touching their noses to the hot lights and then running away, he said.

DeLess said rats are most plentiful in neighborhoods where residents store garbage outside, and where food scraps are washed down sinks or shredded by garbage disposals.

"Mice, snakes, rats and frogs," he said. "If it can live in a sewer, we have seen it with a camera."

Group seeks transit

alternatives for West 11th

A discussion group with a short but impressive track record has another idea to share with leaders.

The Roundtable Group wants the City Council, Lane County Board of Commissioners and Lane Transit District officials to figure out ways to reduce traffic congestion on West 11th Avenue.

In a June letter, the 16 residents who have varying political leanings asked officials to consider bus rapid transit or other "transit-based improvements" for the area.

The group includes some influential people, including Mayor Kitty Piercy; Rusty Rexius of Rexius/Grant's Landscape Services; Jack Roberts, director of the Lane Metro Partnership, a business recruitment agency; and Rob Zako, of 1000 Friends of Oregon, the state's best-known land use watchdog group.

Members said the community cannot wait until the fate of the long-delayed West Eugene Parkway is decided before steps are taken to reduce the growing traffic congestion.

Some members support the proposed parkway; others oppose it, their letter said. Exploring transit-based alternatives to relieve traffic "could produce near term improvements" while the parkway "controversy continues to work its way through the system," members said. And public transit could help if the parkway is built or not, they said.

"In either case, we believe the need for transportation improvements in west Eugene is too critical to be held hostage to the ongoing conflict" over the parkway," they said.

Last year, the group urged the mayor and the council to help pay for a study to see if there is enough commercial land in the Eugene-Springfield metro area. The study, which is under way, was sought by the Chamber of Commerce and Lane Metro Partnership.

Reflecting the consensus-based approach of the group, members also recommended that the city complete a study of wildlife habitat in the south hills, which environmentalists on the group wanted. Last month, the council endorsed that proposal. City planners are to start working on the study in the coming months.

Edward Russo can be reached at 338-2359 or [e-mail].