DES MOINES METROPOLITAN WASTEWATER RECLAMATION AUTHORITY

The City of Des Moines, IA has a testimonial regarding the use of less expensive pumps for digester cleaning and scum mixing.   Dick Burbank, Maintenance Superintendent at the plant had this to say:

"The WRF had purchased a 30 hp submersible chopper pump from .... to pump sludge from the bottom of our digesters during cleaning. The pump was unable to perform after 10 minutes of operation due to the stringy mat (mostly animal hair) completely clogging the pump inlet.  This resulted in continually removing the pump from the digester to clean the inlet. This operation became totally labor intensive. The local Vaughan representative retrofitted ... with a Vaughan pump and the problem went away.

We also had a similar experience with the .... mixers in the digesters and the scum pits.  The initial trial mixer could not perform satisfactorily and seventeen Vaughan mixers were purchased and have been performing without problems other than expected normal maintenance.

It is my opinion that the slightly elevated cost of the Vaughan pump will be saved in a very short time."

The brand name of the retrofitted pumps has been eliminated for privacy purposes.  If you would like more information on Dick's success using Vaughan Chopper Pumps, he can be reached at (515)323-8000.