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Difficult Pumping Applications from
Blackhawk Environmental Company
THE ANCHOR PUMP 101A LIFTS QUALITY GROUNDWATER SAMPLES FROM
700 FEET BELOW LANDFILL SURFACE
High standards are imperative when you’re operating
a municipal solid waste landfill handling 325,000 tons of
waste generated annually by a population of more than 115,000
people living in a region famed for its highly scenic environment.
After years of trying, the bar for quality performance at
Deschutes County’s Knott Landfill in Bend, Oregon, has
been raised by finding the means to pump reliable groundwater
samples from 700 feet below the surface with consistent results.
Prior to 1999, Deschutes used the baling method for purging
and sampling. groundwater. The results were inconsistent,
with frequent “hits” in samples involving oil
and debris. Since the groundwater is sampled every six months
and monitored for compliance to an extensive list of requirements,
this method proved very problematic and time-consuming. There
was no pump available on the market that could do the job.
Electric pumps were too difficult to use; pneumatic pumps
could not pump from 700 feet down. Consultants were brought
in to analyze the situation and recommended that Blackhawk
Environmental Co. be contacted to custom design and develop
a pump for this difficult application.
Enter Chad Centola, Knott Landfill operations manager, in
January 1999. One of the first priorities of his new job was
to conduct the first groundwater sampling using the new pneumatic
Anchor Pump101A from Blackhawk Environmental. Unfortunately,
during the initial sampling events, the stroke speed could
not be controlled. The piston kept getting bound up in the
pump body and some of the parts separated. Working in tandem,
Centola and Blackhawk Environmental worked toward a solution.
“Blackhawk was very cooperative and the pump improved
with each new round of sampling. Blackhawk was determined
to give us a functional pump that would do what we required.
They even did research on deep wells, which are primarily
used in the petroleum industry and came up with new ideas
for our situation. Blackhawk completely re-designed the Anchor
Pump Drive Motor, resulting in a substantially improved, easier
to control unit. Now, the new Anchor Pump installed in September
2001 does the job!” said Centola.
The key difference is that the stroke system for this Anchor
Pump Drive Motor is regulated by physical pressure on switches
on the drive motor. Prior drive motors used a pressure logic
system. If the downstroke was going too fast, the piston pump
would bind up in the pump body too down the well and, sometimes,
even damaging the pump piston. Additionally, the pressure
logic system would freeze up on occasion when temperatures,
which can get quite low in Bend, plummeted.
Another component of note, the pump inlet is at the bottom
of the pump, so that the pump acts like a syringe, sucking
liquid into the pump with every stroke for highly reliable
and consistent sampling. Liquid is pulled into the pump intake,
and the pump operates consistently whether the pumping application
is clean or dirty. The positive displacement action resists
slowdown or stoppage even in the most sticky or oily situations.
The pump drive mechanism is positioned on top of the wellhead
enabling the operator to see whether the pump is running or
not.
“The simplicity of the improved Anchor Pump is excellent.
There are so few moving parts in the well to cause problems.
The controls on the top are very important, making it easy
to install, inspect, trouble shoot, maintain and repair. The
system is lightweight and easy to handle. We move the above-well
Anchor Piston Pump Drive Motor from well to well. There is
a dedicated downhole portion of the pump in each individual
well, which eliminates any potential for, cross-contamination.
I’m actually looking forward to the next groundwater
sampling event this spring. After the last round I was very
pleased,” Centola stated.
Blackhawk Environmental Company’s Anchor PumpÒ
is specially designed to lift liquid from depths exceeding
700 feet deep and is ideal for pumping hot, dirty, silty,
slimy materials...particularly oil, leachate and landfill
gas condensate. Unlike other pumps, where discharge performances
are limited to the inlet air pressure, the Anchor Pump is
designed to pump to the lowest possible level and can be installed
in wells as small as 2" in diameter.
The Anchor Pump is a plunger pump, with a reciprocation action,
that mechanically recovers fluid from the well bottom, independent
of the well’s liquid level, while maintaining a constant
flow recovery rate. It features a top head drive oil well
sucker rod pump that effectively recovers thick oily liquid.
Its smooth controlled flow recovery has the ability to tune
speed and strength of the recovery to the yield of the formation
being pumped.
The Anchor Pump’s deep recovery capabilities can produce
400 psi of pressure. Anchor Pump can be set for a flow range
of 0 to 11 US GPM. Anchor Pumps feature top head mechanical-drive
mechanisms and uncomplicated controls, making installation
and on-site maintenance easy - even under the toughest conditions.
Blackhawk Environmental Co. specializes in manufacturing
quality pumps and controls for demanding pumping applications.
Blackhawk pumps can be powered pneumatically or electrically
and can work in hazardous or potentially hazardous environments.
For over ten years, Blackhawk pumps have been successfully
operating in a wide range of pumping applications across the
United States. Blackhawk’s pumps are custom manufactured
in a variety of sizes and designs depending on the application.
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