Prime Pump’s British designed and locally engineered EnviroHub lamella plate settlement tanks are establishing a new standard in silt management and clean water discharge. EnviroHub is the brainchild of the originator of lamella plate settlement tanks, which he has refined and adjusted the system to achieve the optimal angle for performance and solids separation.
For generations, SRP (settlement retention ponds) have been relied on to ensure projects meet their consent requirements. However, the ponds are demanding in terms of time and space requirements and need additional consents and engineering plans. Also, the necessary earthworks, even with remediation, can take their toll on the environment.
Ricardo Holt, Prime Pump Civil and Mining Sales Engineer says in contrast to SRPs, the space-efficient EnviroHubs are not only highly effective but can also be quickly and easily deployed. “SRPs disrupt a whole lot more land; they’re expensive to build, still have running costs, you’ve got to get extra consents, and the end result is still the same.” (With an EnviroHub, only a discharge consent is required.)
A manoeuvrable six square metre EnviroHub tank can do the work of a conventional 50 square metre settlement pond with the advantage of space saving and scalability. That means incorporating dosing systems, as required, and adding additional tanks. “Depending on the project, sites may need one tank, or they may need four.”
The EnviroHub can also conserve energy by using a solar panel, rather than a generator, to power its flow switch and activate chemical dosing.
Ricardo says the EnviroHub is well suited to the variables projects can encounter. “Often, when people dig down, they don’t know when or if they will hit groundwater. An EnviroHub can be set up within a day. With an SRP it either needs to be developed pre-emptively, or to be excavated once ground water is hit which could delay a project for weeks.”
The EnviroHubs are available in a range of sizes to match expected flows.
While the EnviroHubs, which are available for hire or sale, are relatively new to the market, Ricardo says the reaction to them has been overwhelmingly positive.
One tank was recently deployed for a project for the Waikato Regional Council digging close to a stream to put in footings for a pump station. Space was relatively tight and requirements for water purity were strict. Ricardo says the client was very impressed with the EnviroHub. “They were used to dealing with large ponds and were rapt to see such a small tank doing the same job.”
