image of street sweeper
Image courtesy Sarah Hobbie, University of Minnesota

Information on street sweeping

Street sweeping crediting and Phosphorus Calculator

University of Minnesota research on street sweeping

Links

Survey of street sweeping practices

The MPCA conducted a survey of cities to determine their street sweeping practices, their interest in a street sweeping credit, and their ability to implement different methods for crediting sweeping. We have not yet fully analyzed the data, but some general conclusions include the following.

  • 75 cities responded to the survey and indicated they operate a sweeping program. This was a response rate of close to 50 percent. The responses were distributed geographically across the state and covered a wide range of city sizes (large to small).
  • About 78 percent indicated they would be likely to participate in a crediting program
  • All but 7 cities can track sweeping information, but 66 percent said they cannot relate material collected to a specific geographic area. This is a question we likely will follow-up with, since being able to relate material to a geographic location is potentially a way of targeting sweeping efforts.
  • Most cities estimate volume or mass of material collected, but few measure volume or mass or have the ability to measure dry weight of material collected
  • Most cities sweep quarterly or less and most do not specifically sweep in response to fall leave drop

The summary information can be found here.

Related pages