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Inspection & Maintenance Guide for Septic Sewage Pumping Stations SepticAPedia ©

• Septic tank pumps, septic grinder pumps, septic effluent pumps
• Sewage ejector pumps
• Sump Pumps
• Sewage Pumping Stations or Municipal Lift Stations
• Septic Pump Alarm
• Septic Alarm demo video

Here we illustrate a septic pumping station for a small community wastewater handling facility. This is a section of our article which explains the differences between Sump Pumps, Sewage Ejector Pumps, Septic Grinder Pumps, Sewage Pumping Stations, & Septic Pump Alarms. Citation of this article by reference to this website and brief quotation for the sole purpose of review are permitted. © Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Bias Pledge is at below-left. Use links at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

Use of this information at other websites, in books or pamphlets for sale is reserved to the author.

Technical review by industry experts has been performed and is ongoing - reviewers welcomed and are listed at "References." This document is a chapter of Inspecting, Testing, & Maintaining Residential Septic Systems an online book on septic systems.

Septic pumps used for pumping air in aeration systems and septic pumps used to move effluent in a drip dispersion system are discussed under the appropriate septic system type which are outlined at SEPTIC SYSTEM DESIGN ALTERNATIVES.

What are Community & Housing Development Septic Pumping Stations?

A community sewage pumping station uses a large centralized chamber to receive wastewater from multiple buildings at a single site or development and then grind and pump the wastewater onwards towards a wastewater treatment facility. The photo at the top of this page shows a large sewage pumping station serving a shopping complex in southern New Jersey. The photos at left and below show a sewage pumping station serving a residential community in Pawling New York. Vertically suspended submersible sewage ejector pumps use a motor secured to the sewage reservoir cover. The pump is basically held in place by the connection of the pump motor shaft to the pump housing which is inside the reservoir. Closely-coupled submersible sewage ejector pumps use a motor which is secured not to the sewage reservoir but rather directly to the pump mechanism itself - to the housing for the pump impeller which actually grinds and moves the wastewater. A short shaft connects the closely-coupled sewage pump to the impeller housing and impeller, and the entire assembly is submerged in the sewage reservoir. Sewage pumping stations are needed where all or some of the homes or buildings in a community are located downhill from the greater community's sewage mains. Wastewater drains by gravity (or if necessary by individual building septic pumps) from individual buildings in the community to the local septic pumping station which has a holding tank big enough to act as a receiver for wastewater from the community. From the receiving station, wastewater passes through one or more sewage grinder pumps through a pressurized sewage force main (pipe) which transports the waste uphill to a location from which the wastewater can drain by gravity through additional piping to the community's wastewater treatment facility. The septic pumping station will typically use two or more sewage grinder pumps to move wastewater uphill to the larger community's sewage mains where it passes to the sewage treatment plant. Multiplexing pumps helps assure that the community's waste will be handled even if one pump fails, and also permits staging of pump operations to bring more pumps online if the inflow rate increases.

Special Concerns for Municipal Lift Stations & Community Septic Systems

We have some special concerns for community sewage pumping stations or "septic pumping stations" or "force mains" as they may be called in some areas.

• Child safety The pumping station shown here has an access cover that was not locked - leaving us worried that a neighborhood kid might explore and fall into this deep pit - a nearly certain and quick fatality.
  
  
• Municipal Lift Station Reliability: since a large number of users are affected by a septic system failure and because municipal and community pumping stations are likely to experience surge loads, take a look at  Duplex Septic Pump System Designs
  
  
• Sewage Pumping Station Reliability and Sewage Backups If the system is not maintained or lacks an adequate number of pumps and backup power, the entire community can be without wastewater services. For example, during an unusually heavy rainfall, or during a local power outage, the community served by the pumping station shown in this photograph lost the service of its pumping station.

One unpleasant effect was that homes nearest to the pumping station's receiving chamber suddenly had everyone's sewage backing up into their homes. In addition to omission of a backup generator for the system, the plumbing contractor had not installed check valves in the sewage lines at each home.

Diagnosing sewage backups and how to diagnose clogged drains is discussed at Diagnosing Clogged Drains & Septic System Backups: Is it a blocked drain or the septic system? - A First Step for Homeowners. The contaminants in sewage that may be left behind when sewage backs up in a building are discussed further at Septic system contaminants: identifying water and soil contaminants produced by onsite waste disposal systems.

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SEPTIC SYSTEMS HOME
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HOME BUYERS GUIDE to SEPTIC SYSTEMS
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  Sewage Ejector Pump Grinder Pump
    What is a Sewage Ejector?
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More Information on Building Diagnostic Inspections and Repairs

• The Septic System Information Website home page for this topic
• Septic Systems Inspection, Testing, & Maintenance- online textbook. Detailed how to inspect, maintain, repair information
• The Home Buyer's Guide to Septic Systems
• Septic Tank Pumping Guide: When, Why, How to pump the septic tank
• Home & Outdoor Living Water Requirements
• Septic Tank Capacity vs Usage in Daily Gallons of Wastewater Flow, calculating required septic tank size, calculating septic tank volume from size measurements
• How Big Should the Leach Field Be? - table of soil percolation rate vs. field size
• Septic System Drainfield Absorption System Biomat Formation - what leads to drain field clogging and expensive drainfield repairs
• Table of Required Septic & Well Clearances: Distances Between Septic System & Wells, Streams, Trees, etc.
Pennsylvania State Fact Sheets relating to domestic wastewater treatment systems include

• Pennsylvania State Wastewater Treatment Fact Sheet SW-161, Septic System Failure: Diagnosis and Treatment
• Pennsylvania State Wastewater Treatment Fact Sheet SW-162, The Soil Media and the Percolation Test
• Pennsylvania State Wastewater Treatment Fact Sheet SW-l64, Mound Systems for Wastewater Treatment
• Pennsylvania State Wastewater Treatment Fact Sheet SW-165, Septic Tank-Soil Absorption Systems
• Document Sources used for this web page include but are not limited to: Agricultural Fact Sheet #SW-161 "Septic Tank Pumping," by Paul D. Robillard and Kelli S. Martin. Penn State College of Agriculture - Cooperative Extension, edited and annotated by Dan Friedman (Thanks: to Bob Mackey for proofreading the original source material.)

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