Project Provides Opportunities for Dewatering Research and Development
The Pearl River CSO Project Storage and Conveyance Tunnel in Lafayette IN offers opportunities for developing diverse and creative dewatering solutions. The City of Lafayette has been expanding its wastewater treatment facilities for over eight years in order to accommodate its increasing population. A solid manufacturing and college base, combined with a large medical presence makes the city a steadily growing environment, which in turn requires commensurate growth of its water and wastewater treatment facilities.
"Conditions here are such that we had to develop new dewatering techniques to increase efficiencies and lower costs," says Tom Minihan, vice president of Midwest operations for Griffin Dewatering Corp. Tunneling operations for deep sewer dewatering is accomplished by designing systems that reduce engine horsepower requirements and reduce impact on the environment through the introduction of geotextile fabrics. "You don't remove any fine material from the ground as a result of using geotextile products," Minihan says, "and there is no turbidity in the discharge water". Combining today's geotextile filter products with eductor well technology allow us to pull water from stratified soils and thus go 60+ feet deep without using a large pump."
The project involves high and low volume dewatering, requiring the team to shift gears from pumping thousands of gallons per minute on one part of the job to pumping just 10 or 20 gallons per minute on another segment. The effort requires both gravity-flow wells and vacuum eductor wells.
Griffin has found the Midwest to be an excellent geologic environment in which to do fast-paced research and development. Because of the glacial nature of the subsoil, it offers a geologic diversity that represents many soil conditions throughout North America. "As a result, we're able to develop a diverse line of dewatering systems and get performance results in a shorter period of time than in other parts of the country," Minihan says.
Tom Minihan's Major Dewatering and Pumping Projects
o Soldier Field Renovations, Chicago, Illinois
o Elm Road Power Generating Plant, Oak Creek, Wisconsin
o BP Whiting Refinery Canadian Crude Operations Expansion, Whiting, Indiana
o Indiana Harbor Corps of Engineers Remediation Project, East Chicago, Indiana
o Potawatomi Casino Expansion, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
o Canadian Crude Transmission Pipeline Dewatering, Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana
Tom entered the business of groundwater control and construction and industrial effluent handling after finishing military service in 1975. A graduate of the University of Florida he has designed and manufactured dewatering equipment and installation systems holding several patents on air-water separation systems. His ground water control expertise includes horizontal wells installed by horizontal directional drilling, SB and CB slurry cutoff walls, eductor systems, custom-designed qeotextile wick drain systems, vacuumized deep wells, vacuum wellpoint systems, dewatering system winterizing methods and conventional deep wells. Additionally, he designs and contracts multi-stage efffluent bypass systems for the petro-chemical, industrial and construction industries.
For further information call Griffin toll free at: 1-800-431-1510
E-mail: griffin@griffindewatering.com
Website: www.griffindewatering.com
Contact: Terry Aylward, Marketing Manager
Griffin Dewatering Corporation
Leaders in Dewatering for 75 years
