Engineers outline new lift station for Heartland Park to handle event peak flows

Glenn Peterson, a project manager with SE Engineering, told the St John Town Sanitary District on June 17 that the Heartland Park development will include a newly designed lift station to manage sanitary flows during peak events such as concerts. "it is designed to serve the site in a peak peak event," Peterson said, adding the station is sized to allow future upgrades if additional buildings on the site require sanitary service.

Peterson said the duplex lift station will collect flows from the site and pump them to the existing 8-inch main located by the animal control building. "this lift station will take care of the entire property. Everything will feed into the lift station and then get lifted to the 8 inch main by the animal house," he said. He described the unit as a duplex configuration and said the town will be able to monitor it through the SCADA system.

During questions from board members, Peterson noted the project faces both high-flow and low-flow conditions because it is a summer-programmed venue and recommended winter monitoring to ensure the station cycles and pumps as expected. He also told the board the project team plans to reuse an existing control panel removed from service on another site to reduce costs.

Peterson said the station is not intended as a regional lift station to accept flows from unrelated developments; it is designed for the park site and future on-site expansions. Board members asked technical clarifications about the pipe size, pump sizing and monitoring; Peterson responded that the design team worked with the vendor to size pumps and that the connection point will be the 8-inch main in front of the animal control building.

The presentation concluded with the board expressing no objection to the approach but taking no formal action at the meeting. Staff and the engineering team will continue design work and return with updates as needed.