A department of Johnson County, KS

JCW "Surf's Up" Staff

1. Treatment / "Surfers"
2. Line Cleaning / "Beach Combers"
3. TV Crew / "Beach Control"
4. Maintenance / "Surf Shop"
5. Engineering / "Life Guards"

Meet the Staff

JCW staff members are like members of a club, a kind of JCW Sewer Surfer’s Club!. Each one has an important job to do so that wastewater is clean and safe for our community. There are five general areas ranging from surfers/treatment to lifeguard/engineering; each member is always concerned about clean water.

1. Surfers (Treatment)
You know what surfers do. They're always on the beach, waiting for the nextwave. At JCW our "treatment" members are like surfers - they're always waiting for the next wave (flow) of wastewater to come to the plant. They ride that wave until the entire wastewater treatment process is done. That means watching all the controls, pipes, pumps, valves, as well as chemicals that are necessary to clean the wastewater. Making sure everything is working together to clean the water is an important job of the treatment members.

2. Beachcombers (Line Cleaning)
Beachcombers are always picking up things from the beach. Some of our Surf Club members do that with the sewer lines - they clean them! They can do this by using a "jet-rodder" which is like a big saw with water that goes through the sewer line and removes large items such as tree roots. Or, they can use "jet-vac" which is like a huge vacuum cleaner. It's righteous!

What happens ...when fats, oils and grease are poured down the drain? It sticks to the sewer pipe walls creating layers of buildup that restrict the wastewater flow. See our "Before and After" video fottage of a clogged line and how flow is vastly improved after Grease is removed. - 2.78 MB .wmv / 48 secs.

 

 

3. Beach Patrol (TV Crew)
What do you think the beach patrol does? That's right! They're the ones making sure everything is safe and in order. They send a video camera down into the sewer lines to make sure that they're all working right and that there are no cracks or leaks in them. This helps JCW know what lines should be fixed so that all the wastewater arrives safely at the treatment plant. Cool, huh?

4. Surf Shop (Maintenance)
So, let's say your surfboard needs to be fixed. Bummer! So whatta ya do? You go to the surf shop. JCW has a surf shop of its own called maintenance. We actually have two groups of club members who make repairs – one group works on the lines (called line repair) and the other group works on the wastewater processing facilities. Members of both groups are very important because they make sure EVERY piece of equipment or sewer line is in good working condition.

5. Lifeguards (Engineers)
Lifeguards are important at the beach. At JCW, our engineers are like lifeguards. They keep an eye on the big picture and come up with new and better ways to treat wastewater. That could mean building more treatment plants, putting in new sewer lines, or repairing what we already have. Engineers make sure that it's all going to work. They watch over projects and help the other JCW surf-club staff members do their jobs.

That wraps up meeting the surfing crew at JCW. You can probably see why we are the largest department in the county! There is lots to do and always something new to learn. We're proud of our role. We're proud to help preserve the quality of life for all of our JCW Surf Club members.