Ask The City: Street Sweepers

The Question:

What is the cost to run all of the street sweepers in Laramie. And why are they more important than snow removal?

The Answer:

“Sweeping helps prevent/alleviate water and air pollution. The City reduces the amount of material flowing into our storm sewers and our water ways to minimize the impact on water quality. It also helps reduce the cost of maintaining our storm water system by keeping debris out of the pipes and building up. A rough estimate is every dollar spent sweeping saves 7-8 dollars that we don’t have to pay cleaning the storm lines. Although we are not mandated to do so under an NPDES storm water permit, the EPA does recognize street sweeping as an effective means of controlling pollution. As for air pollution, we are also not mandated to meet certain air quality standards, due to our size, but it is best practice to minimize the amount of dust (PM10) in the air.”