FAQ: Sewer Televising

What is the large white Sewer Authority truck that is working in the street used for?

That white truck is the Chalfont-New Britain Township Joint Sewage Authority sewer televising truck performing a vital service to the municipalities and their residents.  The Authority has almost 70 miles of sewer pipe underground, ranging from 8” diameter to 36” in diameter.  The truck is equipped with camera equipment for the specific purpose of televising the sewer system for troubleshooting and routine inspections.

An operator inside the truck controls the camera unit from a computerized workstation.   The image from the camera is projected onto a TV monitor at his workstation, where conditions inside the pipe can be viewed and recorded.  Additional personnel are also needed outside the truck to help with the process.

Our personnel can see many problems with the camera that cannot be seen from up on the street, such as broken pipes, roots, clogs, or pipe corrosion, to name a few. A significant problem for the Authority is ground water infiltrating into the sewer lines, which may come in through cracks in the pipes, leaky pipe joints, or illegal customer connections such as sump pumps, all of which can also be located by the camera. Large amounts of ground water infiltration into the sewer during wet weather periods can overload both the sewer pipes and the Authority’s treatment facility. Once observed by the televising crew, these leaks can often be repaired right away from inside the pipe with special equipment onboard the truck. This method of repair is much less costly and disruptive than to make a repair by digging up the street.