New Castle County, Delaware, has long battled the buildup of grease in the wet wells of its wastewater pump stations.

New Castle is the largest and most populated county in Delaware with many suburban developments spread across the county. Over the past four years New Castle County Public Works Department set out to address the problem and reduce the maintenance costs resulting from the need to manually clean the grease from the pump station wet wells.

Despite well established enforcement and education programs for restricting fats, oil and grease from entering the sewer system, the accumulation of grease at the County’s 180 wastewater pump stations remained an expensive nuisance. “The residential density and the number of commercial eateries in New Castle County make it difficult to completely control FOG through enforcement and education alone. The amount of grease entering our stations has decreased over the years but we were still having a lot of grease buildup at our pump stations,” stated the lead supervisor for the pump station maintenance staff. 

Initially motorized submersible mixers were tried, and they worked, but the cost of the units plus installation, which requires wet well isolation, confined-space entry and electrical modifications, proved to be too burdensome for widespread use across the County’s many pump stations. 

Download the case study to find out more about the solution and results with the GridBee AP500 mixer.