96-CY Removed from Two Structures

June 20, 2018
Wastewater Visibility News
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Crew Gets Creative to Remove Vegetation in Manatee County

 

Palmetto Sludge Holding Tank 1 SMALL

removing cattails from sludge holding tank

USST recently completed work for Manatee County Utilities, who needed two tank structures cleaned at multiple facilities in order to restore valuable capacity.

The sludge holding tank at the North Water Reclamation Facility in Palmetto, Florida was overrun with cattails and rags.  At initial glance, it looked like a simple job of removing the 4-f00t high vegetation off the top.  However, once the project was underway, an 8-foot root system with rag material woven throughout was discovered underwater.

USST’s unique Combination trucks are equipped with a 49-foot extendable boom, along with vacuum, downhole pump and jetter.

“We used our 49-foot extended boom with hydraulic claw to remove the vegetation from the holding tank while it remained in operation,” says USST’s Field Supervisor, Paul Del Favero, who has been with the company since 2015.  Lead by Paul, the USST crew removed almost 60-CY of material from the structure and the project was completed on schedule.

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USST’s Field Supervisor, Paul Del Favero

Meanwhile, a FOG tank at the Southeast Regional WWTP in Bradenton, Florida was also in need of cleaning.  We talked with Manatee’s Utilities Plant Maintenance Supervisor, Donny Adams regarding the FOG tank project, who has been with Manatee County since 2006.

“The 20-foot diameter by 15-foot high tank has a mixer that needed service, but we were unable to access it due to the large amount of grease that had solidified on the bottom,” said Donny.  Approximately 4-feet of FOGs lay on the bottom of the tank, and was removed by the USST crew via confined space entry.

“We used supplied air, life lines, blower fans, gas meters and more, following all protocols for confined space entry, and ended up removing 36-CY of material,” confirmed Paul Del Favero.  Despite the large amount of material needing to be removed from the tank as well as the difficult conditions, the project was completed ahead of schedule, giving back valuable capacity to the facility.

“Storage capacity had been cut in half due to this tank being out of service.  The crew that was onsite did a tremendous job getting the tank cleaned out very quickly,” confirmed Donny, “[…] we really appreciated the fantastic job they did.”

Experiencing reduced tank capacity?  Our knowledgeable representatives can stop by your facility for a free site assessment and put together a specialized plan to safely restore valuable capacity.  All you have to do is give us a call at (844) 765-7866 or request a free, customized quote here.

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USST’s extendable boom at Manatee’s facility

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