Lincoln Ave. pump station handles challenge for Saugus

SAUGUS – The Lincoln Avenue pumping station withstood a fierce test this week when power to the aged station was cut.Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said he was thrilled that the back up emergency plan not only worked, but worked exactly as it was planned. The town came under fire from the Department of Environmental Protection several years ago for pumping sewage into the river. The problem at the time was the outdated station couldn’t keep up with the demands of a heavy rain storm and the hardware was in dire need of replacement.Over the last two years, the station has slowly been rebuilt with new pumps and a new generator. Bisignani said Wednesday there was a problem with a transformer outside the station, which resulted in a power outage at the station. The pumps, he said, shut down immediately but just one step behind the shutdown the alarms went off.The station is wired to send an alarm to the Police Department, the Department of Public Works and to the phone carried by the DPW’s emergency man. Bisignani said the generator also kicked in, which put the pumps right back to work.”If the generator wasn’t activated, the pumps couldn’t have pumped and we would have had massive backups all over town,” he said.Instead, Bisignani said DPW responded according to proper procedure, the pumps immediately went back up and “our plan worked fine.””There was no illegal discharge nor did we experience any backups,” Bisignani wrote in an email to selectmen.Bisignani said DPW also alerted National Grid to the situation and it began repairs immediately. Bisignani noted that the electric company also upgraded wiring and other elements on the pole, which had been installed in the mid-1980s.While the plan worked, Bisignani said one of the main pumps did experience a problem due to the power disruption, but he believes it will be resolved in short order.”We expect to be fully operational very shortly,” he added. “Only one pump is in use under normal conditions, while two are available as backups if necessary.”Bisignani said his main claim regarding the issue is that the emergency plan worked.”The emergency system that was put in place to deal with power disruptions worked perfectly,” he said. “The town’s resources have been well spent in this matter.”