October 2022
The Drain Rangers ride again!!! Street Sweepers Mount Up!!! (Yes…it’s that time of year again.)
You might have peered out of your window once on a rainy fall Edmonds morning, heard a low rumble slowly approaching and happily realized that the City street sweeper is making a pass to clean the pine cones and fir needles from your windblown street. Or, it’s more likely that you’ve been stuck driving 4 mph behind a sweeper on your way to work and cursing its unhurried presence. Whichever way, our autumnal deciduous leaf drop has a habit of creating messy gutter lines and roads which all need to be tidied up. This recurring mess is an annual calling for the street sweepers to begin their regular Edmonds seasonal migration patterns from Lake Ballinger to Puget Sound and from the far north of Edmonds to the Shoreline border. Then repeat, repeat, repeat…
We anticipate beautiful, clean roads from sweeping that can make our city look even more attractive as well as safe for driving. But, did you know there is a much less apparent, yet highly impactful operational function? Pollution control is one of the most important reasons that we sweep and is often overlooked and undervalued. Street sweeping was named one of the best management practices by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Stormwater Program. Protecting our health and environment is one of the City’s top priorities and, in this case, it’s truly what’s underneath (the road!) that counts. Unpolluted streets mean a healthier environment and street sweeping is a widely used and cost-effective stormwater pollution control practice.
The City of Edmonds owns two street sweepers to clean our nearly nine square miles of public right of way 2-3 times over in a calendar year. This program is designed to ensure that the metals, rubbish, sediment, and petroleum-hydrocarbons (think oil, gas and diesel that drip from vehicles) that are transported by rain and wind are collected before going into our storm drainage system and watersheds. Remember, anything that goes down a storm drain flows directly into our watersheds and Puget Sound and can negatively affect everything from fish to people.
On any given day a sweeper truck collects upwards of 2,000 pounds of unwanted vegetation, dirt, sand, and contaminated material. These materials get trucked offsite to a facility that can hold those pollutants so they are not released back into the environment. Street sweepers also assist with flood prevention and excess nutrient runoff by preventing phosphorus rich leaves from decomposing on the street and clogging storm drains, which contributes to algal blooms and low oxygen levels in our watersheds. You may have never associated algal blooms and street sweeping before, but it is interesting to see how this unlikely connection can start a domino effect that impacts our watersheds, such as Lake Ballinger.
So now, here is the Edmonds Public Works friendly public service announcement…please, please, please, do not blow, rake, or pile any yard waste from your private property onto City streets. Those street sweepers are not lawn service vehicles and if we aren’t currently cleaning your neighborhood the yard waste piles up. In the end, it becomes rather unsightly and ultimately clogs the storm drains that these guys are working so hard to keep cleaned off. So, remember every time you see a street sweeper coming down your road with its side brooms whirling, please afford it some additional space and have a little extra patience. Remember, while it’s cleaning the streets, it’s also removing pollutants from our Edmonds streets and the environment…at about 4 mph!