Water & Wastewater Contract Operations

Variable Frequency Drives

Satisfied Customers

System Upgrades and Repairs

Pump Applications

Troubleshooting

Many of our customers have come to us through an emergency situation, or because they had an unusually difficult problem in their water or wastewater system that no one else had been able to solve.  Here is one example:

A central California city declared a Local Emergency after severe flooding caused a catastrophic failure of their main water supply line. The city had less than 48 hours of water in storage, and repairs to the main were expected to take 3 days. The only remaining option was an old water treatment facility and pumping system that had been out of service for many years. Compounding this problem, the flooding had caused raw water turbidities to increase to over 300 NTU.

GWS was immediately called upon to conduct an evaluation of the 20 year old facility. We discovered that the facility had not only been out of service for many years, but during that time chemical pumps had been removed, chemical feed piping had been broken, wire had been pulled out of conduits, and a number of existing conduits had been cut at the floor and filled with cement. After many years of neglect the City Engineers estimated it would take six months to put the facility back in service, at a projected cost exceeding $180,000.00.

GWS received authorization from city council and immediately mobilized crews. Work commenced within one hour of receiving the council authorization and continued nonstop throughout the day and night. Some of the tasks GWS performed included the following:

• Installed temporary chemical feed equipment.
• Installed new chemical piping.
• Installed new control wiring throughout the facility
• Installed turbidity monitoring and recording equipment.
• Tested all motors up through the 125hp main boosters.

After working 32 hours nonstop, the treatment facility was producing water that met State drinking water requirements. GWS crews were also able to reactivate dormant pumping stations. Within 36 hours of starting a job that engineers predicted would take 6 months, GWS was providing an alternate supply of drinking water into the city's main storage tanks and thus prevented a city wide water outage.

GWS coordinated these efforts through the State Health Department and the local Emergency Operations Center (EOC). GWS operations personnel also stayed on site for 3 days to assist city crews in the operation and repair of their facilities.

• GWS staff's expertise and the latest technology was utilized at a mountain community to automate hard-rock wells. Efficiencies were dramatically increased by utilizing ABB Variable Frequency Drives on submersible pumps at depths of up to 1,000 feet.
• GWS developed a cost-effective packaged water treatment plant to serve single users from surface water sources.
• Effectively solved a chronic iron and manganese problem in a mountain community drinking water system.
• After flooding completely disabled a wastewater treatment facility, GWS staff arrived onsite within the hour to take immediate action. Coordinating with regulatory agencies, our company implemented temporary measures to keep the facility in operation and in compliance. A six-month project followed while GWS completely rehabilitated the facility. Our swift and effective remedial action resulted in commendations and many thanks from residents and governmental agencies.

As a result of our effective and timely actions, many of these customers have developed long-term relationships with GWS that have lasted long after the original crisis had passed. To learn more about this type of service, please call our Toll-Free Number: (888) 909-WATER.