A pumping project may appear simple on paper: water arrives at a specific location and is required to move to another. In actuality, the distance between these two points may be affected by elevation differences in the area, pressure requirements and solids and storage capacity, control, electrical equipment, site restrictions, and fluctuations in flows.

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For Romtec Utilities, designing a pump station begins by defining those operating conditions rather than selecting equipment from a standard catalog. Initial plans and budgetary specifications can be formulated according to what the requirements of the project are.

Start with a simple question: How are we moving?

The solution immediately alters the technology.

The flow of domestic sewage is subject to significant variations throughout the day. When gravity conveyance fails or isn’t sufficient or not sufficient, a wastewater lift facility is required to transport the wastewater. Engineers need to consider the anticipated inflow and maximum conditions, pumping capacities Wet-well behavior, discharge requirements, as well as how equipment will be maintained and operated.

There are a variety of challenges that arise with industrial water. A processing or manufacturing facility may require moving high-temperature, caustic and oily or high-pressure fluids. Romtec Utilities designs industrial systems for applications that range from power generation and food processing to data centers pharmaceutical waste, oil and gas facilities.

Rainfall is the cause of a totally different Operating Cycle

Stormwater systems are often inactive for long periods of time and then suddenly be required to deal with massive volumes during major storms.

A stormwater lift station associated with a detention basin for instance, should work within the overall drainage strategy. The runoff enters the detention basin, where the temporary storage handles the immediate volume, while the pumping system transports the collected water to a discharge point that is approved.

Romtec Utilities offered this type of solution to a Norco, California business park. The pumping equipment was needed to empty the basin and discharge it into the stormwater network. This station had be constructed as a part of the drainage infrastructure, rather than being treated as a stand-alone piece of equipment.

“Package Does Not Denote “Off the shelf”

A lot of people think that a system for pumping packages is merely a predetermined set of components.

For engineering infrastructure, packing may also refer to coordinating the major pieces into one particular project-specific system. The valves and pumps can be chosen based on their use requirements.

This method is particularly useful when the system is required to be connected to an existing infrastructure. Industrial facilities and well-established municipal facilities typically do not have unlimited space or completely clean installation conditions. The equipment might need to be built around existing structures, piping systems electric system, as well as operating schedules.

Capacity planning is a real issue

If facilities grow, undersizing is particularly expensive.

In Portland International Airport, Romtec Utilities provided an sewer interceptor lift station to support the PDX Next expansion. The new station was constructed to provide double the peak flow capacity of the prior system as the airport’s facilities grew.

This is a key aspect of engineering: specifications for the design should not just represent what an installation does in an average afternoon. Engineers must know the conditions that occur during peak demand.

The job isn’t finished until the Equipment arrives

At some point, calculations and drawings will eventually become a functioning system. Installation coordination, startup and testing, documentation, and operator understanding are all vital for long-term efficiency.

What happens following the installation of a pumping unit determines the quality of the system. If the flow increases when a major storm hits, or equipment requires maintenance the choices made during preliminary design become very visible.

Romtec Utilities integrates these decisions into a pumping solution which is unique to a project. This allows us to transform each piece of equipment into an infrastructure designed for the conditions they will face.