Due to the waste from the Northeast Correctional Facility, Alliance Water Resources, the wastewater treatment plant in Bowling Green, Missouri, was constantly having problems. The prison, which produces 300,000 gallons of water per day, was creating a deluge of problems for the pump station, including clogged and plugged pumps, excessive power draw and the need for continuous service and ultimate pump replacement. The inmates were flushing paper, jumpsuits, and all manner of debris – pretty much anything they could flush. It was costing the plant a lot of downtime and tons of money. Once the pumps started needing total replacements on a very frequent basis, costing the plant more than $30,000 each year, they knew they needed a solution.
“We knew we had to find something better. It was beyond expensive to maintain and very difficult to stay on top of the almost-constant plugging,” Bo Stinnett at Alliance Water Resources.
Because the pit was 35 feet deep, there weren’t a lot of options. As a matter of fact, Bo says, “The Franklin Miller SPIRALIFT SLV was the only machine that had the technology to take care of the needs we had in the space we had. Because we have another Spiralift in our plant that we’ve been running for years, we were confident in buying another Franklin Miller unit.” The Spiralift SLV was installed and the results were immediate: no more clogs, no more downtime, no more wasted manpower or replacing machines. “We check on it once in a while,” Bo said. “But that’s it. It’s working great and has proven to be very, very low maintenance. It has worked wonderfully for us.” The Spiralift SLV is a unique fine screen that conveys solids straight up. With its small footprint, it fits into tight places where no other screens can fit. This unit combines Task master® grinding technology with a vertical screw screen to provide fine screenings of solids entrained in liquid flows.