Tyler Weakley, Surface Water Manager for the City of Des Moines, presented an overview of the city’s operations and maintenance (O&M) program to the Environment Committee, describing staffing, inspection obligations and planned work to address aging infrastructure.

"It is a requirement by Ecology that we do offer operations of maintenance," Weakley said, noting the city’s maintenance crews consist of one lead, one stormwater specialist and four maintenance workers — a six-person crew in total — who inspect and maintain public stormwater infrastructure.

Weakley said the city inspects more than 240 public stormwater facilities and that crews performed maintenance on 18 of those facilities in 2024, indicating most facilities were in compliance. The city also provides inspections for 90 state‑required private stormwater facilities and plans to expand an optional inspection program to several hundred additional private sites on a volunteer basis.

Staff described key maintenance programs: construction inspections during active development (inspections every four months while construction is active), biennial inspections of roughly 5,000 publicly maintained catch basins (about 3,000 inspected last year with roughly 600 needing cleaning), and quarterly stormwater pollution-prevention inspections at city maintenance yards. Weakley said City Works and GIS are used for asset management and for tracking inspections and work orders in the field.

Committee members asked about public notice for construction and outreach scope. Staff said outreach varies by project impact and that for larger projects the city uses open houses and surveys, while smaller projects receive localized notifications; Johnson and Weakley described neighborhood canvassing, flyers and targeted letters for nearby residents as common practice.

A city technician has been trained to camera and assess corrugated metal pipe (CMP), Weakley said; the city has "over 250 CMP pipes" in various conditions. Staff plan condition-assessment work and to program replacements in future capital plans, aiming to complete the CMP condition work by 2028 if possible. Weakley also said crews recently installed more than 60,000 bird balls in a public pond and plan a 2027 capital project to place permanent cover over bulk salt/aggregate storage to reduce runoff.

Weakley encouraged residents to use the city’s online fix-it form for drainage concerns, spills and flooding reports; staff said reports typically receive same‑day intake and follow-up within the week.