Residential Wastewater Pumping Wet Well

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augie47

augie47

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Tennessee
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State Electrical Inspector (Retired)
I have a municipal wastewater sewer wet well pumping system ( serving a community..not just a few residences). It is wired as non-Hazardous. A call to the engineer resulted in a comment that it was not classified as it was "vented".....
(The well has a 8" "stack".. no forced air flow)
I have never encountered a sewage wet-well that was not classified..

input welcomed.
 
I haven't seen any either, all the ones I have worked on use rubber cord floats for control, standard nema 3R enclosure above the well. (We call them lift stations here). I also worked on one that was underground, it also used normal enclosures and equipment, but had power ventilation to remove the sewer gases. Because there was only one city employee that did the daily tests on the station, and OSHA required two people to do the testing, (one to go down the hole, one as a safety in case the other was overcome by sewer gas), I installed remote Hand/Off/Auto stations at the top of the pit so he would not have to enter the possibly hazardous location.
 
augie47 said:
Amazing to hear, IMHO, completely contrary to what these articles state:


http://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=18826&p_table=INTERPRETATIONS

http://www.romtecutilities.com/blog...ous-area-classification-for-pumping-stations/
Click to expand...

According to that, I think they mean the well it's self, once outside the well you are out of the classified area. I have yet to see one with the required seal offs they mention, and in the picture they provide on the second link, none are visible. Appears to be several conduits running straight out of the well directly into the control cabinet. I agree there should be a seal off there, but have yet to see one. Municipalities tend to get away with more than private industries.
 
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