Case Study: Channel Disintegrator Solves Ragging Problem, Eliminates Downtime For Maryland Pump Station

The Route 108 pumping station located in Howard County, Maryland serves a large, affluent mostly residential area. The station pumps 3.5mgd of wastewater for further processing to the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant in Baltimore. When necessary, the treatment plant is bypassed and the wastewater is sent instead to the Little Patuxent Water Reclamation Plant. This arrangement, though uncommon, had always worked well until one day things took a turn for the worse.

“The problems began when the station was taken off-line while we did some upgrades to it,” said Superintendent, Bob Funk. “When we went back on-line a year later, the pumps were unable to run a full day without clogging up with rags.”

“Something had changed,” Funk explained. “We think that it was the construction of some nursing homes nearby. We began to see a lot more rags that were probably flushed down the toilets including shredded diapers, cleaning cloths, and other debris. It was a real mess. Every day someone had to spend up to four hours cleaning out the pumps. We desperately needed to find a solution and soon.”

“”We contacted several vendors and asked them for their ideas on how to best manage the situation,” he continued. “One suggestion was a climber screen to catch the rags before they entered the pumps. But that meant dealing with the collected screenings. A better option was a grinder placed in front of the pumps to grind the debris finely enough so that it could be passed along to the treatment plants for further processing.”

“Our first choice was a Franklin Miller DIMMINUTOR® T25 Channel Disintegrator which we ultimately purchased. Before we made a final decision, we were invited to Ocean City, Maryland where we could see the DIMMINUTOR in operation and talk to the operators using it. They said they were very happy with it.”

“Franklin Miller did a great job of engineering the DIMMINUTOR for our conditions. Everything was prefabricated, making it easy for our maintenance crew to install and maintain. We are now able to run our pumps twenty-four hours a day every day with virtually no pump clogging. In the time we’ve owned the unit, we’ve cleaned out just two jams; one caused by a log and the other by a plastic manhole cover. In both cases, the DIMMINUTOR went right back to work.”

“The DIMMINUTOR T25 has proven to be an excellent choice,” Funk concluded.