Kellogg receives new Vactor truck to manage stormwater system
Crews with the city of Kellogg operate their Vactor truck during a project along Kellogg's Market Avenue area. The new truck cost more than half a million dollars, but was paid for through a grant from IDEQ.
Courtesy photo
KELLOGG –– The purchase of a new piece of equipment usually isn’t a big deal for a city, but the city of Kellogg’s new Vactor truck isn’t just any piece of equipment.
In late 2022, Kellogg city officials applied for and received $2.1 million in grant monies as part of the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality’s Leading Idaho Program – with the emphasis of the application being on phosphorus reduction in their stormwater system.
As part of the approved application, the city received $550,000 that was specifically earmarked for the purchase of equipment that would assist them in their efforts to manage and reduce the contaminants in the water as it flows into the Coeur d’Alene River.
Kellogg has hundreds of grated inlets and sediment trap basins throughout the city that require laborious clean-out efforts each year – which is what prompted Kellogg’s City Works director Mike Fitzgerald to begin kicking the tires of the purchase of the vehicle.
“In 2021 and 2022 we had spent roughly $100,000 each year to have this system cleaned out of for us,” Fitzgerald said. “We had asked before and been denied, but I explained to DEQ that this truck would essentially pay for itself in just a few years if we could get it.”
Clocking in at $542,000, the Vactor 2100i is a combination suction and sewer cleaning vehicle that will help reduce costs for the city, while helping them maintain their vital infrastructure – including the recently completed sewer system overhaul.
Operators of the vehicle are required to take two different training classes to get familiarized with the machine, which can be operated from inside the cab of the truck or outside of it with a remote control panel.
“This thing has the bells and whistles,” Fitzgerald said. “And, most importantly, it was paid for using no-match grant money, which means that it’s not costing us a dime.”
For nearly 50 years, the city of Kellogg has been in an agreement with the cities of Mullan, Wallace, Osburn, and the South Fork Sewer District, where the listed entities paid to share various pieces of equipment that did the jobs that the new Vactor truck can do all in one – Fitzgerald isn’t sure if the city will remain in that agreement, or if the city council will decide that they no longer need to in light of the new purchase.
The city recently installed a new Continuous Deflective Separation (CDS) system for their stormwater treatment – the system prevents contaminants from the collected water from flowing into the nearby river by screening, separating, and trapping debris, sediment, as well as oil and grease.
“This truck will be vital to maintaining the new CDS structure and Bunker Creek clean-out structure,” Fitzgerald said. “The city will be able to loan the truck to the nearby city of Wardner to complete cleanouts on their systems and help the county with cleanouts of structures just outside of the city limits, which also feed to the South Fork by flowing through the city.”
The truck has already had its maiden voyage, after being deployed to uptown Kellogg’s Market Avenue to clear out a storm drain that annually filled and subsequently flooded into the street in late fall and early winter, which historically caused a severe ice problem on the road.
The city was able to put in a small drainage beneath the road to help keep the water from flowing over the asphalt, while also cleaning out the nearby storm drain in the event of any heavy rain or melted snow.