The Division of Infrastructure Management's
Street Maintenance Section sweeps streets from early April through the
last week of October. The street sweeping program is focused on mitigating
environmental concerns to prevent pollution from entering our waterways and to
advance the city’s sustainability goals.
Street Sweeping
The
City of Columbus has updated its annual street sweeping program to ensure an
equitable approach to cleaning debris and pollutants along curbed streets
before they reach local streams and harm water quality.
The
update coincides with the Department of Public Utilities seeking renewal in
2022 of the city’s Municipal Separate Storm System, or MS4, permit, required by
the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Most areas of the city have separate
sanitary and storm sewer pipes. Storm sewer discharges to streams, rivers and
lakes with no treatment.
The
Ohio EPA recognizes street sweeping as a pollution prevention practice.
Sweeping helps to improve water quality. It addresses two pollutants of concern
— sediment and phosphorous — affecting local watersheds, including the
Olentangy River, Big Walnut Creek and Big Darby Creek.
The
permit renewal process has given the city an opportunity to develop a
data-driven approach to street sweeping.
Using data from the Division of Refuse Collection’s annual
Litter Index of all city streets, additional sweeping will occur on residential
and arterial streets in high debris zones to prevent litter and pollutants from
entering storm sewers and harming water quality.
Street Sweeping Fact Sheet