Upon a site inspection at a retail park near Aberdeen a number of issues with the existing package pump station were highlighted as a major cause for concern, this meant that further action needed to be taken in order to ensure that the site was left in an operational standard.

The initial visual inspection was carried out by one of our contracts managers, upon lifting the access cover to the unit it was noted that the effluent level was far in excess of the designed operational capacity. Further concern was raised by the presence of warm air emitting from the unit indicating that the pump units were in continuous operation to try combat against the higher volumes.

A vacuum tanker was arranged during the on-site inspection to lower the levels and to enable a more accurate image to be drawn up on the condition of the Pump station. Unfortunately, this was the indicator that the vessel was beyond economical repair.

There was clear evidence that the structural integrity of the system had been compromised, the casing had a number of cracks in the walls which were allowing silts to be drawn into the pump wet well, a likely indicator that the pump station had not been installed in concrete in the first instance.

The outfall pipework had also become displaced meaning the flow from the pumped units was under excess pressure, this was another contributing factor to the pumps working continuously.

To rectify the issue of the present failing system on site, we recommended the installation of a new bespoke unit designed to connect onto the existing inlet pipework and outlet rising main. Due to site restraints we had to consider a number of things during the installation process:

• Restriction of the flow from the complex, providing a temporary drain down system with over pumping to the sewer.
• The existing pump station needed to be removed from site with the new unit to be installed in the same location.

Within the new pumping station, the new crude pumps would be mounted onto guiderails to allow for easier future maintenance, the new system was also designed to handle the expected peak flows from site and with the outfall installed correctly this will remove the pressure the pumps would be under.

As an early alert system to any future issues, we installed a new GSM remote monitoring system which would allow all relevant parties to be notified in the case of any power or pump failures, this allows the responsible parties to action the appropriate remedial action (emptying, engineer attendance etc).

Here at R A Dalton our prerogative is to ensure that our customers have a fully operational and long-term proposal to keep their sites within compliance, for more information on the services we can provide why not give us a call on 01388 537030.