A Hazardous Challenge Met by USST Crews and Equipment

In an urban area of Central Florida, two wet wells had filled up rapidly with rag, FOG, and sand and grit material. These structures serve as master lift stations for a city, (commercial and residential areas) keeping wastewater moving 52 feet below grade to the wastewater treatment facility. U.S. Submergent Technologies’ (USST) equipment was able to remove this stubborn material from the depth required and our crews came in to meet this challenge head-on, safely, and efficiently.

“This is the deepest wet well we have cleaned and might be the deepest in Florida,” said Paul Del Favero, Operations Manager at USST. “I applaud our team and their continued emphasis on safely getting the job done.”

Safety is the most important thing at USST, and a deep well is one of the most dangerous structures to clean in our industry. Our crews undergo competent person confined space entry training and possess hundreds of hours of experience for this type of job. USST also factors in precautions such as fall protection, atmospheric monitoring, explosion-proof ventilation, OSHA-10 training, and intrinsically safe lighting. Additionally, our patented and versatile equipment can handle removing a wide range of waste found in wastewater especially from deep wells.

Approaching this challenging project with the highest safety measures, USST crews employed a 60-foot ladder, Davit Arm, SRL winch, six-point harnesses, lifelines, and full PPE gear when moving in and out of these underground structures. The wet well structures were drained down and gates and pumps were locked out and tagged out to ensure there was no engulfment risk.

Using our patented Combination^3® Truck’s powerful vacuum, crews removed over a foot of material expeditiously and without issue. USST’s vacuum delivers nearly double the CFM of a standard vacuum truck, which allows our crew to remove large amounts of wastewater residuals from 52 feet below grade and complete the job on schedule. 

In total, capacity was restored after 22 tons of material was removed from both deep well structures quickly and safely for the city’s wastewater system.

USST employs a variety of methodologies to capture debris using our versatile, one-of-a-kind Combination^3® Truck and expertly trained crews, to learn more please call 844-956-1129 or email info@ussubmergent.com.