Wichita Southeast Booster Pump Station

The City of Wichita, Kan., is a growing community serving about 500,000 people. Rapid expansion is occurring to the east and west sides of its water distribution system. The East Pressure Zone is a closed system with several hydraulic issues including low peak hour pressure, low suction pressure during peak periods and increasing demand. It is served by the Webb Road Booster Pump Station (BPS).

The Webb Road BPS includes three 12.5-million-gallon-per-day (MGD), 150-hp pumps with VFDs that booster water from the Hess Pressure Zone into the East Pressure Zone. The SCADA system has been slow to react to changes in demand. Our 2005 Water Master Plan developed several major projects to improve system pressures in the East Pressure Zone and responsiveness of the existing Webb Road BPS. These include expansion of the East Pressure Zone, construction of the 48-MGD Southeast Booster Pump Station, installation of seven miles of 30-, 36- and 48-inch pipe to the suction side of the pump station, and link the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) controls for Webb to the Southeast Booster Pump Station.

The East Pressure Zone can be expanded when the 42-inch pipeline is completed and will increase the peak hour demand to 75 MGD. The hydraulic model developed in the master plan was used to size the pumps and assist in pump selection during the design process.

The Southeast Booster Pump Station includes two Weir 350-hp, 12-MGD, horizontal, split case constant speed pumps with two slots for two future 24-MGD, 700-hp pumps. The pump station also includes:

• A surge relief valve with 450 feet of 30-inch line and stilling basin upstream of the creek
• An over-pressure regulator valve for rare hydraulic situations to allow flow to recirculate between pump suction and discharge lines to allow the VFDs at Webb to react
• A motorized bypass valve to allow flow to bypass the pumps during low demand periods
• A 4,700-square-foot building with a 7.5-ton overhead crane, overhead door, HVAC and electrical and SCADA equipment
• Two 1,200-foot, 36-inch mains: Initially, one main is the pump station suction and one is the discharge. Upon completion of the 48-inch suction main, they will both be converted to discharge mains by opening and closing two manual valves.
• SCADA linked to Webb Road Booster Pump Station
• Electrical power supply, security fence and electric gate, site work, landscaping, asphalt parking, and access road.

• Pump station design
• Hydraulics
• Modeling
• Pump selection
• SCADA
• Fast-track design