Pollution Engineering - October 2008 - (Page 51)

REDUNDANCY In expanding suburbs, standby power gen ators ma e In expanding suburbs, standby power generators make ur ower owe generators ma wer tor ors su sure new lift stations won’t fail ure tt sure new lift stations won’t fail fail. By MADELINE FOSS, Marketing Communications Manager, Commercial Products division of Cummins Power Generation Positive L ike many expanding suburbs, Camas, Wash., faced the problem of how to update an aging infrastructure. In particular, its sewage collection system needed major upgrades to meet the needs of the city’s growing population. Located on the north bank of the Columbia River, adjacent to Portland, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., this ecologically sensitive town could not risk any kind of sewage backup, which was a real possibility if the electric utility serving its several lift stations failed. To increase reliability and safety, the city specified that each new lift station include a standby power generator. For most of its history, Camas (population: 15,000) relied on gravity-fed lift stations to transfer sewage to the treatment plant. But by the 1970s, the town had expanded, over and beyond Prune Hill, a ridge to the north, and pressure systems became a necessity. “We had eight or nine older lift stations,” said Jim Dickinson, wastewater operations supervisor for the city, “and they had all been designed differently, making them time-consuming for our crews to maintain and repair. Since about 2003 we have been retrofitting existing lift stations and installing new ones in new subdivisions and developments.” The pre-engineered lift station at Hunter Ridge in Camas, Wash., includes a Cummins Power Generation standby power system for reliability and easy maintenance. Pre-engineered The town has a total of 20 lift stations; of those, seven of which are brand-new, pre-engineered lift stations. City engineers set several requirements when they began replacing the lift stations. Reliability, easy maintenance and consistency of design and performance were top of the list. The lift stations were pre-engineered by Romtec Utilities, Roseburg, Ore., to meet those requirements. Each station included a wet well, two or three submersible pumps, piping, liquid level sensors, underground valve vault, electric pump controls, a standby power generator and automatic transfer switch, and communication equipment. All components, including structural, mechanical, electrical, power generation and communications were pre-engineered, delivered as one package and installed in about a week. The lift station manufacturer chose Minneapolis-based Cummins Power Generation for its standby systems. Said Mark Sheldon, vice president for marketing 51 OCTOBER2008 www.pollutionengineering.com http://www.pollutionengineering.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pollution Engineering - October 2008

Pollution Engineering - October 2008 Contents The Editor’s Desk EnviroNews PE Events Legal Lookout Green Connections Clearing the Air Water for People There’s a New Show in Town Catching Wind for Clean Water Taking the Pressure off Blower Selection Pulsed Plasma Positive Redundancy Product Focus: Municipal Water Treatment Product Focus: Monitoring Equipment PE Products Classified Marketplace Advertisers Index State Rules

Pollution Engineering - October 2008

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