Case Study 507

Pumping In Winter’s
Wonderland
Winter Park, CO uses self-priming pumps to handle
fluctuating demands
As the name indicated, Winter Park,
Colorado is a haven for winter weather
fanatics. The city occupies 7.5 square
miles about an hour’s drive northwestof Denver. Located in the heart of the
Rocky Mountains, Winter Park provides
visitors and residents a picturesqueopportunity for skiing, snowboarding,sledding, snowshoeing and more.
In the warm summer months, themountains entertain hikers, mountainbikers and fishers.
The town also features more than 30 restaurants forpeople looking to dine out, with warm, comforting
cuisine to serve the bundled masses. Specialty storesand small niche shops line the streets, offering
shoppers souvenirs and other travel essentials.

Serving a Quickly Changing Area
The Winter Park Water & Sanitation District (WPWSD)
provides water and sewer services for the WinterPark Ski Resort and a few additional resorts, aresidential area just outside the resort and a handfulof subdivisions in the surrounding area. The area that
WPWSD serves is located in the upper half of the Frasier
River Valley. Mike Wageck, the District Manager ofWPWSD, is responsible for oversight of the entire waterand sewage operation in the area.

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Mike Wageck, District Manager of WPWSD,
with the pumps that handle the fluctuating
sewage flow from Winter Park, CO.
The area has seen tremendous growth throughout
the last few years as corporations have created several
large projects and multi-million dollar homes in thesubdivisions that WPWSD serves. As a result, the resortarea is frequently subject to dramatic changes in usage
and need for water and sewer services. “The type ofdomestic wastewater we deal with is pretty typical,”
Wageck offers. “However, demand changes quickly overthe course of a ski week. On a busy weekend, we will
have 10,000 people in the skiing areas, even though thearea contains fewer than 200 permanent residents. This
causes frequent changes in the demands put on thewastewater pumps that serve our facility.”
Making the operation even more challenging is the fact1

Gragg White, President of Canyon Systems, a Gorman-Rupp
authorized distributor, provides consultation, parts andservice to the WPWSD plant. “ When the initial pumps
would lose their prime, it would take 8-12 minutes forthem to reprime and become operational again,” says
White. “The result of this was that the pumps were notproperly returning wastewater sludge back to the headof the plant as intended – an issue that threatened tocause the entire pumping system to fail.”

A New Pumping Approach
These issues demanded immediate attention in orderto maintain the operational efficiency needed to deal
with ever-changing demands placed on the plant.
Wageck and WPWSD worked with Canyon Systems ona solution for the problem. In the end, they determinedthat the best solution for the pumping issues was toreplace the plant’s pumps with new Gorman-Rupp 3”
Super T Series® pumps.

The Gorman-Rupp 3” Super T Series® pumps
are, in the words of Wageck, “...efficient, reliable
pumps that just don’t break.”that the city of Winter Park is located at an altitude of
9,000’ – more than 1.7 miles above sea level. Suction
head on an industrial wastewater pump derates ataround one foot per thousand feet of elevation. This
meant that the team at WPWSD has been forced to be
more creative in the way that they position the pumps
in their facility – in order to achieve the required power
to service the plant.

Higher Ground Means Higher Needs
The elevation of the plant posed significant challenges
to the line of pumps that was originally installed in
the Winter Park facility. The pumps were in an abovegrade configuration with an excessive horizontal runof suction pipe. This setup led to countless operational
issues. “At random times, the pumps in the facility
would just stop working or they would lose their prime
overnight,” says Wageck.

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Super T Series pumps incorporate a large volute design,
allowing the technology to re-prime automatically in acompletely open system – without the need for suction
or discharge check valves and with the pump casing
only partially filled with liquid and a completely dry
suction line. They also feature a two-vane, semi-open,
solids-handling impeller which can accommodate
small solids that enter the pump, an exclusive doublefloating, self-aligning, oil-lubricated mechanicalcartridge seal and a removable coverplate providing
quick and easy access to the pump interior without
disconnecting piping. In total, the WPWSD facility
installed three of the self-priming, centrifugal pumps– one for each of the two basins and one to serve asa standby pump – allowing the facility to seamlessly
pump a half million gallons of water per day.
On the additional recommendation from Canyon
Systems, the Gorman-Rupp pumps were installed
below-grade – creating flooded suction and eliminating
the possibility of lost priming due to trapped air in thepumps’ suction pipe. Wageck took time during theperiod of expansion and construction in the plant tomake the appropriate changes – successfully resolving
any lingering concerns about the plant’s pumps losing
their prime and suffering downtime.

©©
2014
2007-2017
The Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-Rupp
CompanyPumps

Making Maintenance Routine
With the elevation issues resolved, Wageck and his
team have been left to deal only with standard pump
maintenance. Part of that maintenance involves solids
that pass through the pump. “Currently, the water inour system goes through a pre-treatment processthat removes the majority of solids,” Wageck explains.
“Overall, the Super T Series pumps do a fantastic job
pumping solids. They have the ability to pass a soda
can or a tennis ball if they need to. However, from time
to time, rags or string come down the line and can get
built up inside.”
The technology is designed to allow for a quick fix
in these types of situations. “What I appreciate mostabout the pumps is how easy they are to clean out,”says Wageck. “With the removable cover plate wecan open the pump up, clean it out and get it back inoperation in about twenty minutes.”
Another benefit of the Super T Series innovative
construction is the intuitive design of the pumppackage’s controls. “The Gorman-Rupp pumps arevery easy to operate. In fact, they are probably themost user-friendly pieces of equipment in the plant.”
Wageck says.
Spare parts and rebuild packages for the parts areprovided by Canyon Systems, as well. However, as
Wageck explains it, there isn’t typically a demand forthem. “I will always go back to Gorman-Rupp pumps
if we ever have a wastewater application that requires
pumping. Put simply, they are efficient, reliable pumpsthat just don’t break.”

About The Gorman-Rupp Company
The Gorman-Rupp Company is a leading manufacturerof pumps and pumping systems for the municipal,water, wastewater, sewage, industrial, construction,
petroleum and OEM markets. The company’s
Engineered Systems operation also manufactures afull line of water pressure booster stations including
pumps, motors, valves and controls – all housed inweather-proof fiberglass enclosures – meeting about
any municipal water supply need.
Ultimately, Gorman-Rupp prides itself on manufacturing
and delivering the right pump for the job.

GORMAN-RUPP PUMPS | P.O. BOX 1217 | MANSFIELD, OHIO 44901-1217 | USA | 419.755.1011 | GRSALES@GORMANRUPP.COM | GRPUMPS.COM2
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©©
2014
2007-2017
The Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-Rupp
CompanyPumps