Pumping chambers, why would you want one, and how do they work?

A pumping station is an intermediate collecting chamber for wastewater or surface water that needs to be pumped to another location.

The pump station is used where the collecting point for surface water is lower than the sewer, disabling the use of gravity. 

A pumping chamber can also be an additional step in discharging treated sewage from a private sewage system. In systems with insufficient gravity, sets of pumps are used to transport treated sewage to a drainage field or sewer that may be higher up or farther away, where it reaches the porous ground.

For the main drain connection

You would want a pumping station if you needed to connect to the main public sewer in the road and your drains were lower than the main public drain.

For the treatment plant

You would want a pumping station to pump the treated water from your private treatment plant when the ground needed for a drainage field is only porous higher up in your garden.

[See later in this blog for pumping sewage to the treatment plant.]

How does a pumping station work

A brief synopsis.

The capacity of a pumping station should depend on the number of bedrooms the property serves. 

The pumping station consists of a chamber – ideally large enough to hold fluid in case something goes wrong, typically 24 hours’ worth – to pump it on to the next step of the system.

The pumping station chamber can be made of concrete rings or plastic and surrounded by concrete; see our blog article “What is a pumping station?

Once installed, float switches do most, if not all, of the work, controlled from a panel.
A signal can be sent from the pumping station’s control panel to our office via the Internet.

Each float switch has a different function.

• One float switch is triggered when the sewage water reaches a certain level,
• Another float stops it before a pump runs dry when the sewage level gets too low,
• The third float switch is triggered when the Pumping Station gets too high; it sounds like a horn or a noise that will attract the attention of the owner, and also has a flashing light where appropriate,
• Or a signal is sent to the ASL’s office, and our pump engineer,
• Backup battery alarm systems are available.

Pumping sewage into a treatment plant

Macerating solids

As a whole, we normally avoid pumping raw sewage. To be clear raw sewage is rarely pumped to a treatment plant. If raw sewage has to be pumped, we normally separate the solids from the wastewater and then pump only the wastewater. As a rule of thumb, we do not pump raw sewage unless the treatment plant receiving it is doubled in size. It is more cost-effective and less problematic to separate the sewage water and pump only the water.

Our main concern

The processed foreign waste from a kitchen entering the pumping station or a treatment plant (holding tank) must be redirected or stopped, not only to protect the pump and extend its lifespan, but also to lengthen the interval between emptying. Most importantly, though, is preventing pollution of the ground.

The main threats to a pumping station’s functionality are:

• Fat, grease, and oil,
• Plastic bags,
• Rags,
• These factors are often compounded by surface water entering the foul drainage system, either directly or indirectly.

See our blog article on surface water ingress.

If your ground is not porous enough for a soakaway or drainage field, or you would like to pump your wastewater to the main sewer instead, give us a call on 0800 181 684 to discuss your options further.