Case Study 408

Pumping Solution
Gives Rolling Foothills
Communities a Footholdon Wastewater Efficiency
Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania,
characterized by the rolling foothills of
the Appalachian Mountains, is locatedin Western Pennsylvania, northwestof Pittsburgh. In the past, a city thatwas dominated by the heavy steel
industry, it is now home to a suburban
community and an abundance ofparks, open spaces and scenic views.
A mature community, with an aging infrastructure,
Beaver Falls has faced many challenges. As home to oneof the oldest and largest wastewater treatment facilities
in Beaver County, the city has been forced to address
issues such as keeping costs down and updating
technologies that have reached their operating
capacities. The solutions would require innovative
thinking and a creative approach to managing thecommunity’s wastewater activity.

Pooled Resources“Here, there are a lot of communities within communities,”
shares Jim Breznai, Chief Mechanical Supervisor for
the City of Beaver Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant.
“When faced with the challenge of a mature market, anddeclining wastewater flow, the answer was to combine
the collection systems of the nearby communities tobetter utilize the treatment capacity that we had inplace.” As a result, Breznai and his maintenance team are
responsible for managing the services of 10 outlying
communities – with the Eastvale Borough and the Big© 2008-2017 Gorman-Rupp Pumps

A portable Gorman-Rupp bypass pumpkeeps the system up and running duringsite construction.
Beaver Municipal Authority (BBMA) being his team’s
primary responsibility outside of the plant.
On the flip side, as Beaver Falls’ wastewater treatment
responsibilities have grown, so has the need forinnovative thinking. “We are historically the least
costly system in Western Pennsylvania,” shares
Breznai. “We’re very proud of that, and by servicing
the additional communities, we’ve been able to keep
our per-capita cost down – even as we grow and new
systems connect to ours.”“What Beaver Falls has done is innovative because they
have aggressively sought out additional business,” sharesMark Place, CEO of John Place, Inc., the Gorman-Rupp
distributor and applications partner. Mark Kennedy,1pump station. Installed in 1983 to provide sewerage
for approximately 300 homes, the station served theresidents well for nearly 25 years. But today, pumping
needs have grown with the addition of flows fromneighboring North Sewickley Township coming to theEastvale station. “This community was a little further
out and had plans to connect 1,000 additional homes– approximately 300,000 gallons a day. There was no
physical way to bring the wastewater across the bridge
to our plant with the existing pumping system. Our
piping – everything – was pretty much undersized,”
explains Breznai.

With the new wet well in place, the site isprepped for the concrete pad where the pumppackage will reside.
of Widmer Engineering, is the city’s consultant for therecent sewerage expansion projects. “Beaver Falls has
positioned itself to provide wastewater treatment service
to an expanding region of customers as new sewers areconstructed. And they have done this intelligently over
the years without breaking the bank in the process,” adds
Kennedy. “The leadership role of the recently retired
Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) superintendent,
which is now being carried forward by the wholeoperations and maintenance staff, was critical to thissuccess. The staff understands the big picture, not only
their day-to-day jobs, and the entire region is better forit. Other jurisdictions should take note.”“Our plant is in no way considered aging,” boasts
Breznai. “Eight years ago, we invested $5 million in
upgrades – mainly electronics. We’re very advanced
as far as variable frequency drives and the overall
operation of the plant. As a result of that upgrade,
today we are able to take in outlying communities –
because the actual capacity is here.”

A River of ChallengesIn the latest stage of the sewer collection system’sgrowth, Eastvale Borough, a rural community locatedacross the Beaver River from the Beaver Falls WWTP,
posed a unique challenge. Originally, the sewage
pump station that existed to serve the Eastvale areaof the system was a below-ground, “wet well-dry well”

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To rise to the challenge, both pipe size and pumptechnology upgrades were required. But the immediate
upgrade wasn’t the only challenge facing the city. A
small footprint provided additional challenges to how
the new lift station was to be designed. Safe and efficient
access – to ensure the new station was easy to maintain– was also a priority. “The site is wedged between adead-end street, a bridge abutment and train tracks.
It’s got a pretty steep grade, and simply put, is a pretty
tough site all the way around,” shares Breznai.
The challenge was to connect a temporary pumping
system to the existing 4” bridge line, install a new 8”line on the other side of the bridge, and pump active
wastewater flows through the old line while the newline and pump station were being installed. “Thehardest thing to ever do is a retro-fit...to upgrade asystem that needs to perform while you’re working
on it,” attests Place. “New systems are easy because
you wait until they are done, you test it; prove it andthen you tell the people to start tapping in. This wasdone live under the gun, because we could not tell 300
homes to stop using water.”
The design team was faced with the challenge ofengineering a solution that would pump 25,000 gallons
a day to the plant during the construction, which lasted
from April through August. However, a rainy day would
severely increase the flows, demanding additional
muscle to handle up to 250,000 gallons a day. Still,
the design team prepared, and was able to ensure
the temporary system could handle that additional
flow. “We had no problems, no bypasses, and our new
pumping system was online before many additional
homes were added,” recalls Place. “Ultimately, our job isto bring options to the owner and the engineer. We had©©2014
2008-2017
The Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-Rupp
CompanyPumps

the solutions, but it was simply a matter of having thecommunication path open – ensuring we’re all talking
through the needs of the project. There are no cookie
cutter solutions.” The added engineering forethought
paid off. “We were glad we decided not to demo the oldline, and instead utilize it as a backup,” shares Breznai. “Itwas a big payoff, because even now, I can hook up thetemporary system at any time as a backup, in the event
something was to happen. And, it saved the demolition
cost of the old pipe, too.”“It wasn’t just the bypass issue that needed to beaddressed,” adds Place. “The liability had to beaddressed as well. The city had a pretty good idea ofwhat they wanted and needed. It was our job to takethose expectations and match them up to thehydraulic and capacity requirements.” To meet thechallenge, the station was upgraded with a Gorman-Rupp
6” Super T Series® Auto-Start system with emergency
power, all housed in a modular fiberglass enclosure.
In addition, a Gorman-Rupp 6” Super T Series trailer
mounted Silent Pump package was provided to handle
the bypass duties during construction.
The Gorman-Rupp Auto-Start lift station uses a 12 volt
DC level control that drives a pump with a standby
engine providing normal pumping service during power
failures rather than a noisy and expensive generator.
The smaller standby engine reduces operating noisein the neighborhood and is less costly to operate thana generator. The pump station is also configured with
the Super T Series pump technology, providing the citywith advanced design features such as external shimlessadjustment, dual protection of bearings and an easy-grip
cover plate handle. The pump features a large volutedesign that automatically reprimes in a completely opensystem without the need for suction or discharge checkvalves – and with the pump casing only partially filledwith liquid and a completely dry suction line.
The city’s new trailer mounted Silent Pump is a soundattenuated engine-driven pump unit. Its fuel capacity
allows for a minimum of 24 hours of continuous
operation, and all units feature a lightweight, corrosionresistant aluminum enclosure that is acousticallytreated to maintain noise levels as low as 63 dBa while
operation at full load. This was an important featureduring construction as the nearest house was directly
across the street from the construction site.

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The final step of the installation process was
housing the Auto-Start pump station with adurable, corrosion-resistant modular enclosure
from Gorman-Rupp.

No Substitution for Sewer Smarts
The city’s systems are not only designed to last, buthave been constructed with ease of use in mind. In
addition to the Auto-Start pumping system, each pumpstation has also been installed with a small building
generator for lighting and heat. “Some people tell us
we’re spoiled,” laughs Breznai. “That’s fine – but you
tend to do a better job when you’re dry and warm
rather than standing in lightening, thunder and rain.”
Further, with the goal of keeping the people of Eastvale
happy, the design also called for an anti-septic timer.
There are times throughout the course of any givennight during a dry summer that the pumps wouldn’t
run because of insufficient sewage flow. However, if
the community complains of a sour smell or slight
odor, the timer can easily be adjusted to run the pumps
more frequently, preventing the stored sewage frombecoming “septic”. “Our pump stations are designed
to work for the entire community – even something
as small as the smell. It may not seem like a big deal,
but if we keep just one person happy, it’s worth theinvestment,” shares Breznai.
“It’s not rocket science, but I don’t know anyone elsethat offers that in the standard control panel option,”adds Place. “As we push out into these unsewered areas©©2014
2008-2017
The Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-Rupp
Company
Pumps

we’re having more and more odor problems. In thetime that sewage travels through a remote system tothe last station, it often times has been in the system
for a week. Yet, when we install an anti-septic timer andsometimes a supplemental aeration system, you canoften get through even the hottest of dry summers
with no odors and no complaints.”
An added benefit at the Eastvale pump station isthat the timer also functions as freeze protection
during extremely cold weather, forcing flows acrossthe exposed force main mounted on the bridge
periodically to limit ice buildup.
The station also features a magnetic flow meter andrecorder to monitor pumped flows, an area velocity
meter to measure and record any pump station overflows
to the Beaver River and a rain gauge. Since the start of theproject however, no such overflows have been recorded,
which was one of the goals of the project.
A digital cellular monitoring system provides the staff
and engineering consultants with real time operating
data including run times, wet well levels and discharge
flows. Alarm conditions are reported on a secure
website as well as to their digital cell phones.

Keeping Maintenance At Home
Because energy and maintenance are the two highest
cost categories of any plant, the city worked to createa solution that was not only smart, but cost effective.
In all, Beaver Falls maintains approximately $20 million
worth of equipment and keeps and inventory of spareparts and equipment on site. Further, to offset a plant’s
second highest one item – labor – Beaver Falls has
implemented additional controls. And right behindlabor is maintenance cost. Breznai and his maintenanceteam are very proactive about maintenance and with
only three people to maintain the plant equipment andthe outlying pump stations, they have to work smart.
“In a way this city kind of died with the steel mills,”
confesses Breznai. “We came to this plant, and havebeen able to bring the skills we’ve acquired to thebetterment of the communities. This work ethic, in fact,changed our maintenance outlook from the start.” Infact, the city’s preventative maintenance program hassaved the community countless investment dollars. By
taking advantage of the day-to-day maintenance thatmost operations neglect – such as lubing and minor
adjustments – the maintenance staff has uncovered thekey to keep the city flowing smoothly.
As a result, Breznai and his staff conduct their own
monthly and quarterly preventative maintenance,
avoiding surprises. Doing so saves on overtime andcatastrophic failure costs, and allows Breznai and his
team to better understand what’s broken down when
downtime does occur, and why it’s broken down – anda reasonable expectation as to how quickly it can comeback online. As a result, this lean maintenance team has
been minimized to two to three individuals at any given
time, with the need for outside contractors virtuallyeliminated.
“Thanks to this new technology, we’ve eliminated
99.9% of our costs,” boasts Breznai. “We give a lot of thatcredit to the Gorman-Rupp stations, too. It’s a best-casescenario that works well for us. However, Mark Placeand the entire organization of John P. Place, Inc. is thereal reason we’re successful. I can’t give him enoughcredit for what he does for this city.”

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
2008-2017
The Gorman-Rupp
Gorman-RuppCompanyPumps