Flovac monitoring of vacuum collection pits and valves saves money and reduces operational risks.
The city of Marathon in the Florida Keys has one of the largest vacuum sewerage systems in the United States. Dan Saus, the Utility Director has over twenty years experience managing vacuum sewerage systems, having previously been in charge of operations at Key Largo as well. All up these two systems represent over 20,000 connections and include a number of hotels, condominiums and commercial areas.
Although in charge of a very strong and capable operations group headed by Chris Wright, Dan Saus was interested in monitoring of the vacuum valves and pits as soon as the technology showed that it was capable of doing it in a secure manner without creating more operational issues.
“The priorities for me was risk reduction. Firstly, ensuring that our operators could be notified quickly if a high level was being reached in a collection pit prior to sewage entering the homeowners’ yard or house. Our other risk was for our operators. Hurricanes and strong storms have been hitting The Keys on a more regular basis, with the Flovac system we can prioritize what alarms need to be followed up quickly and we can reduce the time spent by our operators in the field.
Dan Saus with Flovac’s Technical Director Don Van Soest and Michael Pringle Flovac’s Director of Operations
I have been impressed by how easy it was to install the Flovac monitoring system and my team can now do any additions when and where we want to and roll it out to our schedule and cash flow without restrictions.
Flovac and their head of operations Michael Pringle have been tremendous with their support and help in getting things up and running. It has been Flovac’s knowledge of vacuum systems and twenty years of history in system monitoring that has made all the difference, knowing what information is important, whether for the operator or operations manager or for me. I get up in the morning and at a single glance can see how our system with its 5 vacuum pump stations and 1,800 collection pits has been performing.
Overview of the Marathon vacuum sewer system area
We have had many home runs within a short time of setting up. Finding out how much flow some of our commercial customers were putting into the system was eye opening as was the ease of finding out about a potential overflow next to a favorite haunt for tourists before it became a real ‘stink”. One of the operators from a project further along the coast told me that the monitoring system had identified salt water infiltration from a homeowner’s block solving a problem that had been around for a considerable time.
I recommend to any operations manager that they should talk to Flovac about their monitoring system”
Governor Ron DeSantis has recognized the importance of monitoring of sewage infrastructure and is looking to bankroll further roll-outs in the Florida Keys.
For further information please contact your local Flovac office.
