As the name suggests, Winter Park, CO is a haven for winter weather fanatics. The city occupies 7.5-sq mi about an hour's drive northwest of Denver. Located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Winter Park provides visitors and residents opportunities for skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snowshoeing and more in the winter and hiking, mountain biking and fishing in the summer. The town also features more than 30 restaurants and a host of specialty stores and small niche shops.

Serving a Quickly Changing Area

The Winter Park Water & Sanitation District (WPWSD) provides water and sewer services for the Winter Park Ski Resort and a few additional resorts, a residential area just outside the resort and a handful of 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 of WPWSD, is responsible for oversight of the entire water and sewage operation in the area.

The area has experienced tremendous growth throughout the last few years as corporations have created several large projects and multimillion-dollar homes in the subdivisions that WPWSD serves. As a result, the resort area is frequently subject to dramatic changes in usage and need for water and sewer services.

"The type of domestic wastewater we deal with is pretty typical," Wageck offers. "However, demand changes quickly over the course of a ski week. On a busy weekend, we will have 10,000 people in the skiing areas, even though the area contains fewer than 200 permanent residents. This causes frequent changes in the demands put on the wastewater pumps that serve our facility."

Making the operation even more challenging is the fact that the city of Winter Park is located at an altitude of 9,000-ft - more than 1.7-mi above sea level. Suction head on an industrial wastewater pump derates at around one foot per thousand feet of elevation, meaning that the WPWSD team has been forced to be more creative in the positioning of pumps in their facility to achieve the required power to service the plant.

Higher Ground Means Higher Needs

The elevation of the plant triggered significant challenges to a line of pumps that was originally installed in the Winter Park facility. The pumps were in an above grade configuration with an excessive horizontal run of 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.

Canyon Systems, a Gorman-Rupp authorized distributor, provides consultation, parts and service to the WPWSD plant. I analyzed the situation and found that when the initial pumps would lose their prime, it would take 8-12 minutes for them to reprime and become operational again. The result was that the pumps were not properly returning wastewater sludge back to the head of the plant as intended-an issue that threatened to cause the entire pumping system to fail.

A New Pumping Approach

These issues demanded immediate attention to maintain the operational efficiency needed to deal with ever-changing demands placed on the plant. Wageck and WPWSD worked with Canyon Systems and determined that the best solution for the pumping issues was to replace the plant's pumps with new self-priming, centrifugal pumps.

The Gorman-Rupp T3 pump design incorporates a large volute, allowing the technology to re-prime automatically in a completely 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. A two-vane, semi-open, solids-handling impeller can accommodate small solids that enter the pump. The design includes double-floating, self-aligning, oil-lubricated mechanical cartridge seal and a removable cover plate providing access to the pump interior without disconnecting piping. In total, the WPWSW facility installed three of the self-priming, centrifugal pumps-one for each of the two basins and one to serve as a standby pump-allowing the facility to pump a half million gallons of water per day.

On an additional recommendation, the pumps were installed below grade-creating flooded suction and eliminating the possibility of lost priming due to trapped air in the pumps' suction pipe. Wageck took time during a period of expansion and construction in the plant to make the appropriate changes-successfully resolving any lingering concerns about the plant's pumps losing their prime and suffering downtime.
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 in our system goes through a pre-treatment process that removes the majority of solids," Wageck explains. "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 type of situations. "With the removable cover plate we can open the pump up, clean it out and get it back in operation in about twenty minutes," says Wageck.

Spare parts and rebuild packages for the parts are provided by their distributor, as well. However, as Wageck explains, there isn't typically a demand for them.

The WPWSD is happy to have a pumping solution for their unique situation.

Pumps & Systems, March 2008