Santa Pola resolves odours and overflows with a Flovac system

The Flovac vacuum system is one of the most innovative and longest in Spain – The vacuum system installation, executed over the past 8 years have allowed prevention of salinity problems in the town. With this system, the City of Santa Pola collected wastewater generated for 12,900 homes for later use mainly on irrigation

Vacuum Pump Station

Spains largest vacuum system is near completion. It is a technological solution to solve the problems the utility in Santa Pola were suffering as it was built on a cattle farm located on salt marshes , which has a subsoil of sand.

This caused problems of infiltration and unstable ground conditions. Seawater infiltration resulted in increased salinity of the water, which greatly impaired the biological process of purification of the wastewater.

To solve this problem the city has installed a Flovac vacuum sewerage system. Flovac installed pipes up to 315 mm diameter, inside which is a constant vacuum of -0.5 and -0.6 atmosphere is maintained by vacuum pumps.

Vacuum valves are opened by the difference in air pressure automatically and take in  the wastewater from pits. No electricity at the pips is required. The pressure differential allows sewage to flow into the vacuum station and then it is pumped to the Treatment Plant.

There were a number of benefits to the community and to the operators with reduced construction costs and impact on businesses and residents. Operators, who use the monitoring system, note reduced blockages and odours and time at site.

The monitoring system allows operators to know exactly when they are needed and where to go.

A number of other towns with similar problems and now talking to Flovac.