Sometimes new opportunities make business owners take a deep breath and make big investments in new equipment. Rich Navert, owner and president of RNR Enterprises Inc., knows the feeling.

But he’s breathing a little easier now that the company’s camera and pipeline grouting truck, purchased last year from Aries Industries Inc., is serving an emerging market for the company’s services.

“We have a cluster of nine or so mountain communities in Colorado that are very much concerned about the volume of effluent their sewer systems handle,” says Navert, whose company operates from Denver and Boise, Idaho.

“They’re processing huge amounts of inflow and infiltration and are starting to bump up against federal limits for rated capacities. If they reach 80 percent of capacity, they need to plan for increased capacity, and that is incredibly expensive and time-consuming. So they turn to us for help.”

Costs add up

Groundwater leaks increase sewage treatment costs significantly. If it costs 10 cents a gallon to treat diluted sewage, one leak can cost hundreds of dollars a day. “It makes much more sense to fix the leaks,” Navert says.

RNR operates a grouting truck from Aries Industries Inc., a GMC 5500 with a 20-foot box-body that holds a chemical grouting system from Avanti International for repairing mainlines and laterals. It also carries a sewer inspection system with a pan-and-tilt color camera and 360-degree continuous radial view; a lateral inspection system; three 15-inch flat-panel monitors; and a hoist with a reel-mounted, swing-out boom for lifting equipment in and out of the truck.

The truck has a winter package that includes baffled doors for hoses and cables that allow technicians to work without leaving the main doors open in cold weather. A propane heater keeps operators comfortable during winter work and eliminates the need to drain the system during weekend storage. The vehicle is also air-conditioned.

Just one call

“This vehicle allows us to become a one-stop shop for our customers,” says Tim Huston, a manager at RNR. “We can do everything from drain cleaning to video inspections to pipe rehabilitation to manhole and structural rehabilitation.

“We wanted to be in a market that no one else in our area was serving, and grouting pipes has its own niche. It’s another method of repair that we can offer to municipalities. When we’re not using it as a grout truck, we can use it as a straight video inspection truck when we clean sewer and storm drains, or use it to launch video inspections of laterals. It’s very versatile.”

Delivered in March 2009, the truck is already paying dividends. “We did a job north of Denver at a hotel, where they thought they’d have to dig up and replace an old sewer line,” Navert recalls. “The customer was stunned when he heard we could stop the leak without digging up the line.”

Adds Huston: “We do demos for people that are very effective. We might just fix one or two joints in a 100-foot-run. Word-of-mouth helps get the word out, too.” The truck itself impresses potential customers. “It looks real good,” Huston says. “And people respond to that.”