Behind the Tap Spotlight: Lift Station/Preventative Maintenance Specialist Denver Huey

Meet Lift Station/Preventative Maintenance Specialist Denver Huey. Denver works in CCWA’s General Services Department ensuring the Authority’s 41 lift stations operate at 100%.

Lift Station/Preventative Maintenance Specialist Denver Huey in one of CCWA’s 41 lift stations.

You may be wondering, ‘what is a lift station?’ A lift station is a pump station designed to move wastewater from homes and businesses from a lower to higher elevation using a collection system. These pump stations ensure the wastewater gets to one of CCWA’s water reclamation facilities.  A SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system is used to monitor the operation of the lift stations and provide a way to remotely access data that is useful for troubleshooting.

Denver leads four other specialists and is on call 24/7. Maintaining lift stations is critical work, but takes place very behind the scenes. If a lift station fails, it is imperative that Denver or one of the other techs arrives quickly and works to make the repair to get it operating again. Otherwise, wastewater will spill or backup which is bad for the environment and a smelly issue for customers. He also is responsible for staff reports, creating work orders, ordering parts, training new hires, checking SCADA, paying invoices, and meeting with contractors.

His vision for lift stations is to make them all safer to work on and to accommodate us better. “The only way to do this is to upgrade them over time one by one,” he adds.

“One thing I like about my job is with the 41, soon to be 44 stations, the crew works diligently through the night sometimes to make sure all are operating at 100%. Even with us being down two staff members, the work still gets completed within a timely matter. I am very appreciative and couldn’t ask for a better crew,” Denver says.

His biggest challenge is getting things approved that are needed to do their job better or for safety reasons. The pandemic has had an upside for Denver. “We have been doing all meetings through Zoom which has made things a lot easier.” #waterprofessional