"Vacuum excavation systems have been better known for their association with directional drilling," says Kevin Smith, Ditch Witch product manager. "But over time, customers have continued to find new opportunities to put them to work."

Smith says that today it is not uncommon to see vac systems used for everything from utility verification to grain elevators. "The market for these units continues to expand, and the list of applications where they can be used just gets longer and longer," he says.

Ditch Witch of Central California's Kevin Campbell would concur—to a point. While he acknowledges that "the possibilities are nearly endless" for vacuum excavation systems—he recalled one account of a Ditch Witch FX30 being used to clean and process carrots—he also says that the majority of his customers use these units for soft excavation tasks such as potholing and utility locating, road construction, and wastewater treatment.

"Municipalities probably experience the most application diversity with our vac systems," says Campbell. "They use them to not only expose utilities but also to repair and maintain their underground valve boxes and meters. Some of these meters are in alleys, and they used to have to be cleaned out by hand. With an FX30 or FX60, you can run a hose into the alley and clean them out faster and more effectively." Municipalities also use vac systems for removing leaves from storm systems, cleaning out street and building gutters, preparing roads for repaving, and keeping expenses manageable. "Before vac systems, municipalities only had these huge machines that require a team of skilled laborers to operate," Campbell explains. "With our machines, you can us general labor because they are simpler to operate, and they can go places the big machines can't."

California utility companies are choosing vac systems for a variety of reasons. PG&E San Francisco purchased several Ditch Witch FX60 1,200-gallon systems partially because the unit meets the noise-pollution requirements of the environmentally sensitive Bay Area. And the construction industry, a major driver of the state's economy, is finding new applications for vac systems, says Campbell. "When a company digs concrete footings for a new building, they leave a trench," he says. "If it rains, construction has to stop until the trench dries out. Instead of waiting, companies can now suck the water out with a vac system."

California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory owns a Ditch Witch FX30. The top-secret research and development institution is responsible for ensuring that our nuclear weapons remain safe, secure, and reliable. So, for reasons of national security, we may never know everything that a vacuum excavation system can do.

Published in the Spring 2006 issue of The Underground.