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Protection of Polish Regions Water Source

The Polish city of Imielin is located in southern Poland beside the  Dziećkowice Reservoir, a beautiful man-made lake used by locals and tourists for a broad range of recreational activities, including sailing competitions, fishing, swimming and sunbathing on sandy beaches.

Dziećkowice Reservoir also supplies drinking water to Imielin and communities across the Silesia region. It is therefore vital that Imielin was served by an effective and reliable sewerage system offering the highest level of environmental protection.

The city also sits in a region that has been subject to extensive coal mining over many years, causing damage to the terrain, including subsidence. Between 2006-2019, Imielin implemented a comprehensive vacuum sewage system as part of a multi-phase construction process. A total of 60 km of vacuum lines were built and more than 1,000 vacuum valves installed. Flovac Polska was an integral partner in the project, supplying vacuum valves, vacuum station equipment and a propriety cable monitoring system.

“Operating any sewage system involves challenges, but the task is easier when you are working with a reliable partner like Flovac Polska sp. z.o.o. We know we can always count on the company’s help in terms of design, implementation and operation”.

Marek Jędrysik, President/CEO Miejska Spółka Komunalna

Why Flovac’s solution was chosen

Imielin is characterised by flat and mining-damaged terrain, as well as difficult ground-water conditions. Given these challenges, the city recognised that Flovac’s vacuum sewerage system offered a cost-effective solution, in part because it requires shallow trenches, which cuts construction costs and enables faster deployment.

Environmental protection was also a key factor because vacuum systems operate with negative pressure, ensuring no sewage can leak out (even in the event of a rupture). In addition, this means there are no overflows and rainfall cannot infiltrate

Finally, Flovac’s solution offered reliability and stability (with an inlet system designed to ensure air is always automatically entering the system), as well as easy monitoring and maintenance.

The monitoring of the vacuum system via a cable system (FMS) offers the client stable power and is a great alarm system for activations, pressure and potential failures. Flovac Polska has been a leading developer  in this type of monitoring and can save the client money through ease of operations and reduces risks to the community via fast alerts to the operators.

The results

Flovac’s technology has delivered outstanding reliability to the city and unrivalled protection to the Dziećkowice Reservoir. As a result, Imielin City Council remained fully committed to an investment and implementation process that continued over a 15-year period until completion in 2019.

Smaller scale expansions of the vacuum sewerage system will continue as the Imielin are continues to expand.

For a reprint of this article you can download it here 

Flovac’s vacuum sewerage system is not only suited to environmentally sensitive regions or challenging terrains. It offers tangible benefits to all manner of new and existing residential developments. For more information, please contact your local office.

The Most Difficult Install Ever, Eretrea Greece

The city of Eretrea in Greece, one of the best known Archaeological sites in the world, has had a much needed upgrade. A Flovac vacuum system has been installed to replace old septic tanks that still serviced the houses in the town.

Two vacuum pump stations were required, as well as 414 collection pits, a cable monitoring system and 28,000 meters of pipework including the house connections. A
vacuum system was chosen due to the difficult ground conditions and the flexibility that the pipework allowed for. A gravity pipe system would require deep trenching and straight lengths of pipe.  Vacuum mains can be installed with full flexibility and can be rerouted around difficult areas.

Difficult Installation

The city was an important city in Ancient Greece beginning at the time of the Bronze Age in the 8th century BC and was a seat of trade,  commerce and education. As the site is still under archaeological excavation it is still common to find artifacts while digging into the ground. We often found evidence of graves, walls, bronze artifacts and perfume bottles. Some more than 2,000 years old. At all times during excavation we were accompanied by two archaeologists and no excavation could take place without them. Once something was found, we would have to stop pipelaying and wait until drawings were done. Permission would then needed be granted from the Central Archaeological Institute to continue, which often took a long time.

We also needed to deal with a water table at 60-70 cm (24 inches). You would think that this close to the sea that it would be salt water but no, it was clear sweet fresh water. At 90 cm (36 inches) there is a hard crust which when perforated allowed salt water to ingress.

A very difficult but a very rewarding project.