07/16/2024
Problem-Solving For Local Communities:
Pentair's Wastewater Pumps At Work
How Pentair partnered with one Illinois County and an engineering design firm to build a cutting-edge wastewater treatment plant.
If you lived in the city of Springfield, Illinois at the early part of the last century, you would have been subjected to the unpleasant experience of finding raw sewage in the creeks and rivers – and dealing with frequent disease outbreaks from contaminated water. That all changed when the Sangamon County Water Reclamation District (SCWRD) was organized under the Illinois Sanitary District Act of 1917. The situation further improved in 1929 when the county opened the Spring Creek plant which collected and treated sewage – keeping bacteria out of the rivers and people’s drinking water.
Although the system worked well for many decades, in 2007, it was clear that the nearly 90-year old, manually operated Spring Creek wastewater treatment plant was no longer meeting the needs of the community. Rather than just overhaul the existing system, SCWRD decided to commission an entirely new, $120 million dollar, fully-automated treatment plant.
During the design process, the SCWRD team realized they needed wastewater pumps that could handle the challenges of their unique combined sewer system. A combined sewer system processes rainwater and sewage together, which means SCWRD needed pumps that could handle a wide range of matter: from solids with very little water when there was a drought all the way up to 120 million gallons of sewage a day if the area was experiencing heavy rain.
Watch the video to see how Pentair partnered with Sangamon County and Crawford, Murphy & Tilly to build a cutting-edge wastewater treatment plant.
Partnerships
Sangamon County ultimately decided to partner with Pentair on this challenge. As Christy Crites, VP and Group Manager from the design firm Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, said about the decision to work with Pentair, “You’re going to have unique design criteria for every situation. And the ability to work with knowledgeable people that can help you come up with the best solution. It’s huge.”
"In the long term, to go with a quality piece of equipment like a Pentair Pump is going to pay for itself over and over again"
Christy Crites, VP and Group Manager from Engineering Design Firm Crawford, Murphy & Tilly
Local Matters
After six years of design and construction, the Spring Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant opened for business in 2012 and services around 100,000 people. Despite the fact that thousands of people depend on the pumps, Gregg Humphrey, Executive Director of Sangamon County Water Reclamation District, knows that if anything breaks or needs repair, Pentair will have the parts to fix it. As he explains, “We knew we wanted local pumps, manufactured in the United States.* We wanted someone who had been making them for a long time that we were pretty certain we could get the parts and everything in the future. I’ve had situations where I try and get parts for a pump station that was built in 1972. We have to actually call England and find out if they will cast us the parts we need. It might be a five, six, seven, eight-month wait. With Pentair, we’ve never had a problem getting any of the parts we need.”
Ultimately, SCWRD and their partners at Crawford, Murphy & Tilly feel confident that Pentair will be with them for the long haul. As Crites reflects, “One of the things that I’ve learned over my career is that the long-term relationship, is probably one of the most important criteria when I’m looking at who I’m going to specify. Because everybody’s happy to sell their products, manufacture their products, but it’s that long term. I know that CMT has been working with Pentair for 50 and 75 years. So I know that relationship’s there, and we’ve got that solid, solid understanding.”
* The Pentair Fairbanks Nijhuis pumps referenced in this story are manufactured in the United States using U.S. and imported parts.
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