The Indiana city of Carmel has been recognized as one of the best cities in the U.S. to live. Its award-winning wastewater treatment facility is known for using innovative processes and technologies to meet environmental challenges.The careful, data-driven approach extends even to simpler devices, including sludge pumps. The city used progressive cavity pumps for more than 30 years to move solids. In the 1980s, issues with the pumps led plant management to investigate alternatives.Cheaper than repairThe team chose a pin-joint, open-hopper, bridge breaker pump to convey gravity-thickened waste activated sludge from a 2-meter thickener at about 6 percent solids. Using
