Ajax Gas Plant in Wheeler, Texas

Project Details:

The Ajax Gas Plant in Wheeler, Texas was recently constructed by Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) as a natural gas processing and refining facility. The new plant is designed to extract natural gas liquids and produce pipeline-quality natural gas. One of the new systems installed at the plant was a Romtec Utilities packaged stormwater pump station.

According to the EEP website, Enbridge is recognized as one of the Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies, so handling the stormwater on its new plant safely and correctly was a priority. EEP worked with its engineers, Audubon Engineering to create a plan. The plan was to develop a collection system that could handle stormwater and additional process water reliably.

This plan involved using a pumping station (from Romtec Utilities) to pump various types of water with various types of chemical compositions. Although the pump station was principally designed for stormwater, EEP wanted a pumping system that could handle a wide range of water chemistry in the event of any type of leak to avoid negative environmental impacts.

EEP distinguishes “Social Responsibility” as one of its core corporate values, which was affirmed with its approach to this pump station.

Documentation:

Romtec Utilities Scope of Work:

Romtec Utilities worked with Enbridge Energy Partners (EEP) and Audubon Engineering to engineer a packaged system to safely manage the stormwater at the plant. From a design standpoint, this pump station illustrates the value placed on environmental responsibility. The engineering specifications proposed a rectangular concrete wet well, which can have implications on pump station construction. Rectangular wet wells are typically cast in 4-foot-tall segments.

For the Ajax Gas Plant, however, Enbridge and Audubon wanted to eliminate any possible points of weakness, so Romtec Utilities designed and cast the rectangular wet well as a monolithic 11-foot-tall vault. Large, concrete precast wet wells are not easy, but Enbridge and Audubon were committed to installing a packaged system that went above and beyond the best available technology (BAT) required.

The station was engineered with vertical sump pumps for industrial water applications. These pumps are intended to handle the suspended particles, like grit and hydrocarbons, that wash into the system during a stormwater event. Additionally, the bottom slab of the wet well includes a weir wall where the inlet line enters the well. The weir wall provides a semi-contained area for heavier particles to settle. The water then overflows the weir wall with fewer suspended particles.

All of the stormwater gets pumped into a holding tank which is then emptied into trucks for transportation to an offsite water treatment facility. With this type of stormwater plan, EEP installed a very reliable stormwater system at the Ajax Gas Plant. Romtec Utilities works with many industrial clients like EEP that are “leading the changes” of the new environmental climate.