RAW SEWAGE PUMPS

Water flows downhill, and it does it for free. As much as possible, sewer collection systems are designed to flow by gravity. However, that means that by the time it gets to the treatment plant, it’s about as low as it can get. The plant needs to raise all that wastewater to a level that allows it to flow through the all the treatment processes by gravity and still end up high enough to discharge to the Tioghnioga River.

The pumps shown in the photo are used to perform that task. Each one of the three can pump 12,000 gallons per minute, or 17 million gallons per day. The pumps lift the wastewater from 18 feet below ground to 16 feet above ground, the level of the grit removal chamber.