Sewer planning

[barry32]

Hi and I need help on something

Hi - I' m new here and I need your help. One of my jobs is as a Planning Comm in a small town in Pa. We are being asked by our Council (Of which I am also a member) to hire a planning consultant to work on the planning end or a new sewer plan. The planner would be asked to tell us what areas of the town not to sewer ( because of hills etc.) I need you to give me some idea of what to look for in this type of a planner (background etc. ) barry32 at gordon@aamg.com

 

[Jen]

Hi Barry 32 and Welcome to Cyburbia!

To sewer or not to sewer, that is a question facing many small municipalities these days so I'm going to move this thread to the small town and rural planning forum.

Maybe you could also give us a little bit more info regarding your planning consultant search?

Thanks!

 

[donk]

we recently went through a similar project. The skills / training I would look for in a consulant/ consulting firm include:

1) Is either a civil engineer OR has one on staff OR really understands what the design parameters are for this type of project (stack heights, pipe diameters, lift staions, flow rates and all that good stuff)

2) Cartography / GIS makes defining the service areas easier, especially if you have them do a DTM or topographic feature map. It also makes selling the policy developed easier (Lines on a map are easier to explain then a written statement about final elevations and grades)

3) Someone who does not make your skin crawl and can make you laugh once in awhile

PS I am not an engineer, I just know when to hire them.

 

[Cardinal]

Sewer/water service planning is something we went through about 5 years ago. For it, we used a civil engineering firm - the technicalities are too complex for most planners. It isn't just topography, but diameter of existing mains, capacity questions, water pressure, etc. We had them look at what it would take to serve the entire urban service area, beyond to where we would run into topographic constraints for gravity flow, problems with the existing system and options to improve services, etc. The ability and cost to provide service are now part of the dictating factors of where growth may occur.