Ensuring the correct levels are achieved for any drainage project is vital, water will never naturally run uphill and having an appropriate fall over the installation will ensure that your wastewater system can operate efficiently.

However when gravity drainage cannot be achieved you will then need to look into the option of installing a suitable package pump station. It would be a common mistake to believe the only circumstances where a pump station is required is due to the topography of the land, this could also be subject to existing drainage invert depths, distance required for the pipework run or even ground conditions for the outfall (i.e. we may need to utilise a better quality subsoil for the drainage field installed at a higher level.

When identifying the requirements for an installation, our contracts managers always plan out a proposed scope of works including an indicative location for the new system to be installed. Thus was the case for a property in North Yorkshire where it was identified that the new package sewage treatment plant and drainage field would need to be installed in the adjacent field.

To achieve the correct levels a Clearwater CWP5 single sewage pump station was required to be installed to lift the foul to the treatment plant location. The pump station was installed adjacent to the property pumping the untreated effluent to the new Clenviro CLF1a.

To enable the installation of the pump station and rising main to take place within the property bounds the customer was required to remove a section of their hedge so that the pipework can be installed across the garden boundary.

Once an appropriate drainage level had been achieved the pumped outfall would flow into a manhole prior to the new sewage treatment plant to slow the flow, a short section of gravity drainage would then connect onto the Clenviro CLF1a matrix package sewage treatment plant.

Due to no appropriate watercourse being close to the installation location a drainage field was required to disperse the treated effluent to ground. Percolation tests were carried out by the client prior to our attendance on site allowing us to determine the exact amount of pipework required to be installed.

The drainage field consisted of 46 metres of 110mm slotted pipework in a 900mm wide trench, bedded and surround in a clean washed gravel, overlaid with protective visqueen before being backfilled with excavated soil.

Following the final pipework connections for the new sewage treatment plant, if an old unit was in situ prior to the new installation taking place then under the Building regulation approved document H the old septic tank/ sewage treatment plant must be appropriately decommissioned. Therefore we arranged for the septic tank to be emptied in full before the top of the unit was crashed in and the void infilled with gravel to avoid any potential future ground settlement.

Once both the new package sewage treatment plant and pump station had been installed in line with the manufacturer’s guidelines they were then ready to be commissioning by one of our experienced service engineers. On the scheduled date the engineer will attend to make the final connection, set up the pump floats, check the system’s operation and that all the alarms are functioning as desired.

Here at R A Dalton we offer the full package installation from the initial quotation through to the commissioning and even the continual servicing if required.