New Holland Borough in Pennsylvania was experiencing repeated issues with nuisance clogs, which created work hazards for maintenance crews and affected operations of their sewage pumping stations, causing the Borough to rethink the technology that was in place at their sewage station.

The Borough has had a long-standing relationship with Mid Atlantic Pump and Equipment and its representative, Matt Dobroskey. So, it wasn’t unusual that Dobroskey periodically reached out to inquire about any possible issues with any of their equipment. During a recent check in, Mid Atlantic and the Borough decided that a change was needed as a result of having too many problems at one of their pumping stations.

The sewage station was previously equipped with a catch basket that had to be manually lifted out of the wet well from in front of the influent pipe and cleaned by hand. The wet well is outdoors and this was often a very unpleasant job, especially in bad weather conditions.  There was also a safety risk involved while lifting the basket, making it an even more strenuous and difficult task that frequently needed to be done. Once the material was removed, it then had to be returned to the treatment plant for disposal. The basket did not do a great job of catching the smaller inorganic materials and, therefore, led to occasional nuisance pump clogs.

The pumps were replaced with Tsurumi C Series Cutter Pumps, which have a cutting mechanism to break down the solids to help ensure waste will pass through the pump and not clog. This C Series Cutter Pump utilizes a tungsten carbide cutter attached to its impeller, and a serrated high chrome cutter plate to cut materials and ultimately provide clog-free pumping.

The Tsurumi C Series Cutter Pump was designed to resolve the frequent issues of clogging, and with more hygiene and cleaning products being considered “flushable,” these pumps are necessary to help prevent further issues.

“We chose to put the pumps in to eliminate the need for a catch basket that required manual labor on a frequent basis and did an insufficient job catching the smaller inorganic materials,” said Tina Myers, Superintendent for New Holland Borough. “By using the Cutter Pumps, we eliminated the need for the basket. We have had no problems since the pumps were installed.”

The New Holland Borough pumps are sized for 80 gallons per minute at 48’ total dynamic head requiring the pump model size 80C43.7, 5 HP. With this amount of water and waste flowing through the station it is extremely necessary to have proper pumps in place to process everything coming into the station.

“Installation of the Tsurumi pumps allowed the operators the ability to reduce their maintenance activities at the West Main Street Pump Station,” Dobroskey said. “The staff is very pleased with the performance of the Tsurumi Cutter Pumps.”

Since the Tsurumi pumps were installed, New Holland Borough has experienced a flawless pumping system thanks to the Tsurumi Cutter Pumps.