Eco-Friendly Pumping

Oct. 27, 2009

About the author: Kirsten Petersen is the Marketing Manager for Thompson Pump & Manufacturing. Petersen can be reached at 386.767.7310 or by e-mail at [email protected].

As a portion of their planned municipal improvements, the city of Naples, Fla., took measures to reline their sewer lines. To do this, they needed to install a temporary bypass system to redirect the sewage around the section of pipe that was being relined. Since the pumps were handling sewage, it was imperative to assure there were no sanitary sewer overflows, which can have drastic consequences not only to the environment but also from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Knowing the critical importance of this pump project, the contractor called upon Thompson Pump to provide their Enviroprime pumps. These pumps are often used on applications where the project site cannot be contaminated by the fluid being pumped, such as sewage or hazardous effluent.


The city of Naples, Fla., needed a bypass system to redirect sewage as they relined their sewer lines.

Enviroprime pumps prevent blowby—sewage, debris and chemicals—from discharging onto the ground, keeping the surrounding environment clean and safe. An air compressor separates air from water moving through the pump, which prevents the pump’s venturi from clogging and causing a shutdown. With the air escaping separately, the fluid can continue through the pump without any unwanted blow-by discharge. The separation cycle is continuous. Ideal for high-lift situations (up to 28 ft), the Enviroprime also has the ability to pump liquids containing solids up to 3 in. in diameter, sand and mud in suspension.

An on-board compressor supplies air to a venturi, which provides powerful air suction to the Enviroprime chamber located at the pump inlet. The chamber in turn evacuates air from the pump’s suction line, causing it to fill with water. When the suction line is fully primed, an internal float rises in the Enviroprime chamber, shutting off the air suction, which prevents blow-by leakage to the ground from the venturi opening. During operation, if prime is lost or air enters the pump suction line, the float automatically actuates, reapplying suction to restore prime or eliminate air pockets.

Not only are the Thompson Enviroprime pumps ideal for sewer bypasses, but they are versatile enough to handle general dewatering excavations, flood drainage, sludge, canals, sumps and almost any fluid transfer.

Thompson Pump provided an eco-friendly bypass system of four 6-in. compressor-assisted Enviroprime trash pumps capable of handling the flow while preventing environmental contamination. Within two weeks, the contractor had successfully relined the sewer system with peace of mind, knowing the environment had been protected from effluent spillage. The Enviroprime system provided reliable, automatic dry priming with the environmental advantage of not spilling pump fluids to the ground during priming.

About the Author

Kirsten Petersen

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