New York Town Tackles Clogs with Grinder Upgrade

The wastewater treatment plant in picturesque Cobleskill, N.Y., was unable to process the wastewater generated by the town's 4,678 year-round residents. The buildup of plastics, rags, trash wrappings and other debris was regularly clogging the system, necessitating frequent cleanings.

The Challenge

Cobleskill, which was settled in 1752, draws tens of thousands of visitors annually to the Schoharie County Sunshine Fair, which has been held since 1876. Visitors also enjoy fishing and boating on the nearby creeks and reservoirs. But these visitors generate add to the town’s waste load.

The town’s wastewater plant, an activated sludge system with extended aeration, was originally designed to treat an average flow of 1.85 mgd. Septage and incoming wastewater flow through a bar screen, and the oversized solids are sent to two channel grinders, where they are reduced to a fine particulate. The solids settle in the secondary clarifier, pass to an aerated digester and are dewatered and sent to a landfill. Treated effluent is discharged into Cobleskill creek. But the plant was overwhelmed and couldn’t handle the buildup that was constantly clogging the system and halting operation.

The Solution

"After reviewing our options, we decided to replace one of the grinders with a more powerful one," said plant operator Don Borthwick. “Our distributor recommended the Franklin Miller Taskmaster Titan (TM 14000). They liked the design because the unit has a full cut grinder.

“Our original units did not have this feature, and a lot of material got by them. We purchased the Titan, which was easily installed at the head of the plant at the sewer main. As we had hoped, the grinder prevented material from passing downstream to the pumps.

”Since the installation a few months ago, the pumps have been clog-free and the frequent maintenance problems have stopped. The Titan runs very well, and as an added bonus runs quietly.”

The Taskmaster Titan (TM 14000) is an innovation in twin-shaft channel-grinding technology. This unit’s design employs two counter-rotating shafts, but unlike with previous twin-shaft grinders, one cutter stack intermeshes with a second one, which has a much larger diameter. The result is superior performance in both grinding and liquid handling.

The Taskmaster Titan combines powerful channel-grinding capability with high flow capacity and low head loss, and it eliminates the need for rotating diverter screens, which have been known to be noisy, inefficient and maintenance-prone. With its array of cutting edges, cutter life and unit strength are enhanced. Its design provides superior feeding of large, bulky or round objects and produces a finely ground output for protection of pumps, filter presses and other downstream equipment. The Titan employs a 3-hp or 5-hp motor, as well as a cycloidal gear drive, cutter cartridge technology and inlet cutting chamber sizes of 14-in.-by-12-in. up to 14-in.-by-60-in. for handling flow rates of up to 8 mgd.