Combating Scum With Landia Pumps
by Jeff McHattie
Landia AeriGator

Combating Scum With Landia Pumps
Dealing with scum is a real issue in wastewater lift stations today. Scum is made up of grease, oils, soaps and lighter man-made products that float to the surface of a wet well. This scum can form a thick layer that builds up over time and negatively effect the operation of float switches, access to the pumps and also can produce foul odors. The question of how we combat this scum becomes increasingly important.

In comes Landia, a manufacturer of chopper pumps with features that make them ideal  solutions to this prevalent problem.
Landia AeriGator
A Landia AeriGator chopper pump with external cutting knife and venturi nozzle.
Landia offers a chopper pump system which they call the AeriGator, composed of a pump equipped with a cutting knife system and a venturi nozzle. The cutter macerates the debris before it enters the pump and then ejects it through the venturi nozzle with a mixture of air brought in from a snorkle mounted at the top of the wet well.
Landia AeriGator
Evidence of effectiveness of this system  can be seen at a Texas lift station operated by Llano County Municipal Utility District. Their Deer Haven station suffered from heavy build up of scum which required frequent maintenance to hose down the lift station in attempt to break up the scum layer. In addition, the float switches were being tangled up because of the scum and had to be untangled regularly. To their dismay the scum layer would return in a short period of time.
Landia AeriGator
The district called upon Smith Pump Company and requested our assistance in finding a solution. We recommended the Landia Aerigator chopper pump. Landia selects their pump horsepower and type based on the size and shape of the wet well in order to most effectively solve the problem. In addition, we installed a FOGRod level sensor that excels over float switches in reading wet well level in high grease/scum environments with low maintenance and high reliability.

 In the first 24 hours of operation, the scum layer was eliminated. Thereafter the pump was set to run a mere 15 minutes a day to combat the formation of a new layer. The installation was a success and that meant the district would no longer have to devote time daily to deal with the possibility of overflows and strong odors at this station.

If you have a pump station that suffers from scum, Landia  just might have a solution for you!
Head on over to Landia's website to find out more about this particular case study. 

and check out our article on the FOGRod if you haven't already.
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