Virginia Beach, Va., has a land area of 249 square miles and a population of 248,000. To serve this growing city, the Virginia Beach Department of Public Utilities has over 400 pumping stations, nearly 1,800 miles of gravity pipe and 190 miles of force mains.

The city is located at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay with little topographical relief, which results in design of shallow gravity sewers and a multitude of pumping stations to convey flow from its customers to the...