Romtec Utilities provided this data center industrial wastewater lift station for Microsoft’s Columbia Data Center in Quincy, Washington.

A data center is a facility that houses computing and networking equipment to store, process, and distribute data. Data centers contain critical infrastructure such as servers, storage systems, networking devices, and security controls. Microsoft’s Columbia Data Center, located in Quincy, Washington, is one of the company’s major cloud computing hubs. Quincy, Washington is a key advantage of the Columbia Data Center. It offers access to low-cost, renewable hydroelectric power from the Columbia River.

This increases the facility’s energy efficiency and environmental friendliness as data center cooling water is essential for regulating the temperature of servers and IT infrastructure, preventing overheating, and ensuring optimal performance. Many data centers use water-based cooling systems, such as evaporative cooling, liquid immersion, or chilled water loops, to dissipate heat efficiently. With water-based systems incorporated to cool the data center, there is an equal need for a pump station to push that water to the nearest treatment center.

Quincy, Washington is a city just to the east of the Columbia River in the central part of the state about 160 miles southeast of Seattle.

Sitting on State Route 28 and 291, Quincy is in Grant County and 11 miles north of Interstate 90. The population in Quincy was 7,543 at the 2020 census. Quincy is about 90 miles north of Richland and 140 miles southwest of Spokane, WA.

The Gorge Amphitheatre is a famous outdoor concert venue next to the Columbia River, providing a scenic background for concertgoers. Quincy is one of the closest cities to the Gorge Amphitheatre at about 17 miles away.

Quincy has various parks and recreational areas including City of Quincy East Park, Quincy Aquatic Center, South Park, Colockum Ridge Golf Course, Idle Hour Eatery & Spirits, Rich Tacos, Andaluz Family Mexican Restaurant, Quincy Valley Museum Park, Quincy Valley Historical Society & Museum, Frenchman Coulee, Ancient Lakes Trails, Jones of Washington, and Wildhorse Campground.

In 2006, Microsoft constructed the first phase (470,000 square feet) of the ‘Columbia Data Center’ in Quincy, Washington. Since then, the campus has been continually expanding/improving to handle increased data storage and transfer solutions. Quincy campus offers multiple solutions to ensure highly efficient data module cooling and humidity management. The campus has multiple solutions to meet all cooling needs including:

1. Computer Room Air Handling (CRAH) units located in two galleries on opposite sides of each data module allow for highly efficient airflow distribution.
2. Closed-loop chilled water system with air-side economizers
3. Water Utilization Efficiency (WUE) is near zero (liters/kW/hr) with latest cooling design planned for new buildings

Once fully developed, the campus will feature three data centers with 512,500 square feet of space and 70MW of critical IT load. For a complete design, supply, and installation of the entire project without the hassle of multiple vendors, this was a Design Build project with CPG as the general contractor and Optima Engineering working on the civil.

Romtec was previously the basis of design on a lift station installed as part of a 2013 project and thus Optima reached out to have Romtec Utilities mimic that design as much as possible. This is part of the same campus from the previous Microsoft CO3.1 project that Romtec Utilities provided the system for.

This system serves industrial wastewater from direct evaporative coolers on the campus. There is a two-story deck that unites on both sides and ends up with an industrial wastewater (IWW) line that comes across and converges at the lift station. “Industrial wastewater is the aqueous discard that results from substances that have been dissolved or suspended in water, typically during the use of water in an industrial manufacturing process or because of the cleaning activities that take place along with that process.” (Woodard & Curran. 2007). The system is pumping to the reclamation spot. Although this is IWW, there is no difficult water chemistry. The water starts as potable water then runs through direct evaporative cooler resulting in slightly more concentration of various minerals in potable water.

The industrial process water pump station features duplex Ebara 10 horsepower pumps, 4” discharge piping, floats as primary level sensing, stainless steel guide rails.

These are fast-paced projects as sight construction had already started and they needed the system running within a year.

Capstone Structures, LLC installed the industrial process water pump station for this project. CPG provides data center design, construction, and operational services.

Capstone is a general contractor based in Quincy, Washington providing excavation services. Optima Engineering is a mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and technology firm.

Romtec Utilities was proud to partner with the various contractors on the industrial process water pump station for this Microsoft Data Center in Quincy, Washington.