Case Study 01.2023

Gainesville, Georgia Water
Resources Streamlines Lift
Station Performance
The Gainesville, Georgia Department of Water Resources has been systematicallyupgrading the performance of its seventy lift stations to state-of-the-art customengineered, manufactured and assembled ReliaSource® Auto-Start lift stations. The
plug-and-play lift stations, from Gorman-Rupp, minimize installation time and costsby matching pumps, motors, controls, valves, pipes and accessories for maximum
compatibility and performance. The lift stations eliminate the need for an engine/generator set by utilizing a modular combination of pump, electric motor andengine to minimize maintenance and improve uptime reliability.
Located approximately fifty miles
northeast of Atlanta in the foothillsof the Blue Ridge Mountains, thecity of Gainesville, Georgia sports a
population of nearly 45,000 residents.
The city’s Department of Water Resources isresponsible for managing the quality and distributionof drinking water and treatment of wastewater for thecommunity. To service these needs, the department
operates more than 1,600 miles of undergroundwater and sewer pipelines, and seventy lift stations,scattered throughout Gainesville and its surroundings
in Hall County, to move wastewater from users to its
wastewater treatment plant.
Population growth, resulting in new housing andneighborhoods, is continually driving the need for
new pipelines and lift stations. Because Gainesvilleis so close to the mountains, new lift stations are
required to manage elevation changes of 50 to 200
feet. This results in the need for additional lift stations
to handle the increase in wastewater.

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Gorman-Rupp ReliaSource® Modular AboveGround Auto-Start lift stations are available in avariety of visually pleasing enclosure options toblend in with the surrounding environment.
“All the flat land in the county is gone, so if acontractor wants to build it usually means cutting
into a mountain,” said Chris Thornhill, MaintenanceSuperintendent with the Gainesville, Georgia
Department of Water Resources. “This new building1

“Early on in Gainesville’s water treatment evolution,
they used a variety of Gorman-Rupp lift station styles,”said Jarrett Nash, Sales Representative at Templeton& Associates. “Increasingly, the city’s focus with
its lift stations has been to minimize maintenancerequirements and move from diesel to a cleaner
energy source.”

The enlarged size of modular enclosuresprovides added space for performing routine
pump maintenance while shielding operatorsfrom external conditions. Oversized roll-up
doors allow access to station components should
heavier-duty lifting equipment be required.
requires additional lift stations to move wastewater
though the elevation changes and into ourwastewater treatment plant. We have seventy liftstations in operation, with another eight in progressand expected to come online by the end of the year.”

Looking for a More Efficient Lift
Station Solution“With this rate of growth, we needed to look at how tooperate our lift stations with better efficiency,” added
Thornhill. “Keeping the lift station generators serviced,
and everything that goes along with maintenance has
been challenging. Particularly when a storm comesthrough and knocks out the power, adverse weather
and road conditions make it difficult to bring diesel out
to the stations daily to keep the generators running.”
For many years Gainesville has relied on Templeton& Associates Engineering Sales to provide water andwastewater treatment solutions. Templeton works withmore than fifty top manufacturers to deliver a complete
selection of the best equipment in the wastewater
and water industry, along with aftermarket parts andservice throughout the life of the equipment.

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“The Department of Water Resources also wanted
to standardize its lift stations to optimally manage
installations, servicing and parts replacement,”
added Nash. “One of the early lift stations adopted
by the city was manufactured by Gorman-Rupp,
installed as early as 1979. It was the reliability of theirlift stations and the service support the company
has provided that prompted Gainesville to selectGorman-Rupp as their sole provider of lift stations inresidential developments.”
Gorman-Rupp has manufactured more than 17,000
lift stations over the last fifty-six years for thousands ofmunicipalities worldwide.

ReliaSource® Auto-Start Lift Stations– Plug-and-Play Installation
Effective wastewater handling requires lift stations
with valves, controls, pipes and pumps that all work
together to meet sewage handling needs. If any oneof these components fails, it can put the lift station’s
operation at risk.
This is the central theme behind Gainesville’s
selection of Gorman-Rupp’s lift stations. Specifically,
the company’s ReliaSource® Auto-Start lift stations,which are custom-engineered, manufactured,assembled and tested at Gorman-Rupp’s facilities.
Precision-matched pumps, motors, valves, pipes,
NEMA-rated controls, enclosures and accessories
are integrated for maximum compatibility andperformance. The lift stations are ready for
installation on location, plug-and-play.
“These lift stations come from Gorman-Rupp as acomplete unit, basically plug-and-play,” continued
Nash. “They are set in place at the site within ina fiberglass enclosure, minimal connections areneeded, and the lift station is in service. It reallysimplifies the installation process for the contractor.”© 2014 ©
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Eliminates Need for an EngineGenerator Set
The Auto-Start lift station incorporates a modular
combination of two pumps. Each is driven by anelectric motor with one coupled to a natural gas- or
propane-driven engine, thus eliminating the need foran engine generator set.
If power fails, liquid levels rise, triggering a control
that automatically converts the system to 12-volt
DC, which starts the standby engine and runs oneof the pumps during the power failure, and AC
motor operation is automatically restored when thepower resumes. The lift station meets all standby
requirements and can utilize a variety of fuels.
“The engine can run on propane or natural gas, cleaner
fuel sources instead of diesel,” continued Thornhill.
“With seventy lift stations, should the power go out
because of a storm, diesel fuel does not have to besupplied to the newer stations. The maintenancerequired to keep the generators serviced is no longer afactor with the Auto-Start stations.”

Self-Priming Pumps“Gainesville’s lift stations are equipped with
self-priming centrifugal solids-handling pumps
specifically designed for sewage and industrial
wastewater handling applications,” explained
Nash. “The heavy-duty line of Super T Series®, from
Gorman-Rupp is not submersible. The self-priming,
suction-lift design of the pumps allows the design
engineer to physically locate the pumps where
access is a non-issue and routine maintenance can becompleted quickly and easily.”
The large volute design of Super T Series pumps allow
for automatic repriming in a completely open system
without the need for suction check valves, even withthe pump casing only partially filled with liquid anda completely dry suction line. The pump’s two-vane,semi-open solids handling impellers handle up to3” diameter solids. Pump out vanes on the impeller
shroud reduce foreign material buildup behind theimpeller and reduce pressure on seals and bearings.

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In the event of a power outage, Auto-Start
stations can be driven by alternative, cleaner
fuel solutions. This eliminates the deliveryof diesel fuels commonly associated withtraditional generators.
“With Super T Series pumps, the incidence ofclogging is reduced compared to most otherheavy-duty solids-handling pumps,” said Nash. “Theunique impeller design and the ability to adjust
clearances between the impeller and the wearplate
help to reduce clogging. If a clog does occur, themaintenance time is much less – the front cover plate
can easily be opened to remove the jammed debris.”

Liquid-Level Controls
The lift stations are integrated with Integrinex®
liquid level controls, designed to handle basic pumpstation requirements such as pump alternation andlevel alarming.
The controller comes installed with four normallyopen mechanical relay outputs, analog input
capability for either 0-5 VDC or 4-20mA, air bubbler,
submersible transducer or radar input and operating
voltage requirements of either 12 or 24 VDC. The
option of assigning an output for a non-alternating© 2014 ©
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now have six Auto-Start lift stations, one Auto-Start
pressure booster station and a variety (fifty-four) of
other Gorman-Rupp lift stations in operation, fromour total of seventy lift station installations.”
The Gorman-Rupp team of electrical, mechanical andhydraulic engineers have worked closely throughout
the development of Gainesville’s lift systems toensure that the entire hydro-electrical system worked
in harmony to meet the system requirements.

From left to right: Chris Thornhill, MaintenanceSuperintendent – Gainesville, GA Departmentof Water Resources, Jimmy Murphy, Southeast
District Manager – Gorman-Rupp Pumps
Engineered Systems and Jarrett Nash, Sales
Representative – Templeton & Associates
worked closely in developing custom AutoStart solutions for the city.
pump allows the user to set an individual pump tooperate at the same level settings every time it runs.
Gorman-Rupp programmed the control panels forjob specifications and was available to assist thecustomer with SCADA integration.

Collaboration“The concept of these prepackaged lift stations, andthe fact that each station is similar, has made theReliaSource Auto-Start lift station a very attractive
solution for the city of Gainesville,” said Thornhill. “We“Both Templeton and Gorman-Rupp have donea really good job of matching the pumps to thedifferent elevation conditions we have encountered,”
added Thornhill. “Anything we have asked they havebeen able to provide a solution to ensure we havethe most optimum performing lift stations in place.”

About Gorman-Rupp Pumps
For more than ninety years Gorman-Rupp Pumps
USA has manufactured pumps for municipal, sewage,industrial, mining, construction, petroleum, OEM,government, agriculture and fire markets.
The company’s extensive line of pump products includes
self-priming centrifugal pumps, standard centrifugal
pumps, submersible pumps, rotary gear pumps,
diaphragm pumps, engine-driven pumps, and priming
assist pumps. In addition, Gorman-Rupp manufactures
a complete line of state-of-the-art packaged lift stations
and booster stations that include pumps, motors,controls, piping, accessories and enclosures.
For more information, contact Cyndi Hoffner,
Advertising Manager, Gorman-Rupp Pumps USA; 600
South Airport Road, Mansfield, OH 44903-7831; Phone:419-755-1011; email cyndi.hoffner@gormanrupp.com;
www.grpumps.com.

GORMAN-RUPP PUMPS | P.O. BOX 1217 | MANSFIELD, OHIO 44901-1217 | USA | 419.755.1011 | GRSALES@GORMANRUPP.COM | GRPUMPS.COM2
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Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-Rupp
Company
Pumps