Columbia Drain Company

08/04/2026

Loading dock maintenance, or more to the point, cleanliness.

When thinking of stormwater maintenance, the absolute first place to start is the ground. Keeping trash and debris off the ground.

In today's story of, what in the world? This small piece of wood made it into the sanitary sewer system. It jammed in the pump. The motor was strong enough that some internals of the structure broke.

We are able to get one pump working, after we removed a slug of wipes and pieces of plastic from trailer lock.

This particular structure is 28' deep. Unfortunately, someone has to go in and make repairs.

Docks should be cleaned daily. In this case, ownership will be spending $21,000.00 that was not budgeted.

08/02/2026

Please consider us bias with this statement. Our team is hands down the absolute best is stormwater management. We are by no means the biggest, and that allows us to keep a family environment.

We are the most efficient. Take this project, 91, 18" ZPG cartridges. 6" of debris throughout the structure. This is an odd ball, three forebays. Combined 15 yards of material.

Three vacuum trucks, a dedicated team, and this job is done. It was nice to have a completely open top.

07/31/2026

Ashley started with us as our Services Coordinator. Her roll have grown so much. She will take on any roll asked, maybe not with a smile each time, but she gets us through it.

She keeps the crews moving each day. Two weeks of work scheduled at a time. Imagine having 150 catch basins scheduled and then there is an fuel spill. Trucks and personal rerouted to the spill. The days work all rescheduled.

Ashley's deduction, sense of humor and ability to pivot is impossible to replace.

July we celebrated Ashley's 8th year with us.

Thank you for all you do!

07/20/2026

We have been asked how in the world can your company clean 26,000 catch basins a year, plus everything else you do?

Well, when you have the absolutely best coordinator in the world it certainly helps.

Happy birthday to Ashley! Ashley controls the movements at Columbia Drain Co. Why we are all one team, her contributions are remarkable.

Thank you Ashley and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

07/09/2026

Lift station, pump vault, wet well, call them what you want, when sewage is on the ground it is time to call the professionals.

Email received at 0530. First truck onsite at 0645. Longer than normal, but we checked emails first thing.

Paper towels, disposable wipes, feminine products, none of these should ever be flushed down a Drain.

Four full truck loads, 7500 gallons removed. Pumps put back into service and on to the next call.

Our team is second to none. On call crew in early, backup crew on the job.

The team definitely earned their Taco Bell today.

[email protected]
503-313-7246

07/09/2026

We were asked to provide services to a few sites out of the area. This is what we found. I measured a stormwater manhole, the oil literally poured out of my tape measure.

Sadly, someone has not been doing their job.

07/04/2026

To our Founding Father's, thank you.

Happy 250th birthday America.

Paul Harvey describes what our forefathers gave up to start this co...

06/18/2026

Not everyday is stormwater maintenance day.

Someone cut a corner and clipped a fire stand pipe.

We helped the contractor open up the damaged pipe and hydro-excavated holes for ballard poles that were never installed.

High pressure water and strong vacuum makes digging easy.

05/28/2026

What is an emergency?

This week it was 10 gallons of gasoline poured onto a parking lot 45' away from a stormwater swale. The implications could be catastrophic if the fuel made it to the swale.

From the moment the notice came, to Kyle onsite with a vacuum truck protecting the swale, 49 minutes. The support truck was onsite in 57 minutes.

When it matters, we are here. Our average response time to a spill is 45 minutes. That is personal onsite working on containment and then cleaning.

Is this inexpensive, no. However, digging the containment out of the swale is 5 fold the cost.

How do we pull off this response time? Seven vacuum trucks and a team second to none.

We are here 24/7
503-313-7246
[email protected]

05/25/2026

Today we pause to remember those who chose to give the ultimate sacrifice, thank you never seems enough.