Suburban Chicago Conservation Group Gets Tips On Keeping Surface Water Clean

Elgin Sweeper Raises City Officials' Awareness of Silt Pollution on Streets

ELGIN, Ill. (July 20, 2010) – If you want clean streams, you need clean streets. That's the message Brian Giles, sweeper product manager for Elgin Sweeper, shared with the municipal officials and consulting engineers who comprise the DuPage River Salt Creek Workgroup of The Conservation Foundation. The Chicago-area organization focuses on helping local governments understand and apply best practices in environmental stewardship.

Giles made the connection between street pollution and surface water pollution in his June 30 presentation to the workgroup in a meeting held at city hall in Elmhurst, Ill., a Chicago suburb. He is a frequent speaker on environmental protection topics to public and private conservation groups.

During the presentation, Giles described a variety of street surface pollutants that enter the sewers and, eventually, the waterways, paying particular attention to silt as a menace to clean streams. He said silt is inorganic matter less than 80 microns in diameter that tends to remain suspended in solution and is difficult to remove from surface water.

"Eighty percent of silt, or debris that could become silt, is located within several feet of the gutter," Giles noted. "It may be hard to believe, but the average street has about 1,000 pounds of debris per mile. The key to preventing surface water pollution is to keep that debris from entering the storm sewers."

Giles cited data on the effectiveness of various sweeping technologies in removing silt from the streets, ranging from a low of 81 percent using standard wet dust-control mechanical sweepers, to a high of 98 percent using high efficiency regeneration sweeper technology.

"Sweeping is a classic pollution prevention technique," Giles explained. "It removes pollutants before they enter the sewers and streams. Catch basin cleaning can be an important – although expensive – part of an overall strategy to keep sewers free of debris and silt. An effective sweeping program can help minimize that expense."

Giles advised municipal officials to become familiar with the science and technology of street sweeping, including the importance of frequent sweeping.

"As an industry, we have to help local governments understand that street sweeping can be an effective water-pollution prevention strategy," Giles emphasized. "It's more than just making the streets look pretty."

Sold and serviced through a network of more than 100 dealer locations worldwide, Elgin Sweeper products are the sweepers of choice for a variety of general street maintenance, special industrial and airport applications. With more than 90 years of experience, Elgin Sweeper offers municipalities, contractors and industries the most sweeper options in the country, using the latest sweeping technologies—mechanical, pure vacuum, regenerative air, alternative fuel and waterless dust control. Elgin Sweeper is a subsidiary of Federal Signal Corporation's Environmental Solutions Group. For more information, visit www.elginsweeper.com.

Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS) is a leader in advancing security and well-being for communities and workplaces around the world. The company designs and manufactures a suite of products and integrated solutions for municipal, governmental, industrial and airport customers. Federal Signal's portfolio of trusted, high-priority products include Bronto aerial devices; Diamond Consulting automatic vehicle detection and classification technology; Elgin street sweepers; Federal Automated Parking Division parking, access and revenue control systems; Federal Signal safety and security systems; Guzzler industrial vacuums; Jetstream waterblasters; PIPS Technology automated license plate recognition systems; Sirit radio frequency identification technology; Vactor sewer cleaners and vacuum excavators and VESystems software applications and customer management systems and services. Federal Signal was founded in 1901 and is based in Oak Brook, Ill. For more information, visit www.federalsignal.com.