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It’s third and goal. Eight yards to go. The San Francisco 49ers are down by four points with seven seconds left in the game. The quarterback approaches the line of scrimmage. Sweat moistens his brow. His shoulder is still sore from a sack he took six plays ago. The center grinds the ball into the grass and dirt beneath his enormous shadow. Playoffs are on the line. The stands rumble with the collective anxiety of the some 60,000 bodies that have gotten out of their seats to stand. A sort of nervous energy mixed with frenzied adrenaline fills the stadium, the kind of sensation that only seasoned sports fans can know. The players set. The quarterback hikes the ball.

Beneath the field in Levi’s Stadium, located in Santa Clara California, there is just as much action happening. A complex Goulds and Bell & Gossett pump system is laid out to accommodate the 49er faithful. This plumbing system is designed to handle 42 million gallons of water a year. No small task.

According to Xylem (the Goulds and B&G parent company),“The recycled-water pressure booster system built by California Hydronics Corp. (CHC) using Bell & Gossett pumps, heat exchangers and other products, taps into the Santa Clara Valley Water District water recycling system. This eliminates the need to use fresh water to flush toilets and to irrigate the natural grass field, green roof and other areas, which is of particular concern in drought-ridden California.”

This Xylem system allows for 85% of all water use in the 68.500 seat stadium to be from recycled water. To test the system Xylem instituted what’s referred to as a “super flush”. Though it sounds like something Super Man would do after eating a burrito at the Fortress of Solitude, it’s actually an important measure in making sure the system works.

“The “Super Flush,” a test of the system, was conducted in April 2014 to make sure the system was fully operational before the stadium opened. During the test, hundreds of workers and volunteers simultaneously flushed every toilet and urinal and turned on every sink in the stadium for about 30 minutes.”

The point of all this is that pumps make big events that we all enjoy possible. Without the engineering and ingenuity behind “tackling” these modern challenges, we may not know what it’s like to be a part of a live sporting event. So we should be thankful to modern pumping technology and Xylem for allowing us to enjoy our entertainment. You can check out our Goulds and B&G inventory to posses your own little piece of Levi’s stadium. Specifically, the Goulds e-Sv Series and B&G centrifugal pumps were cited as being used.

The center snaps the ball. It fits into the quarterback’s hands and he drops back. The motion has become instinctual at this point. There’s no thought, just movement. A receiver cuts sharply and sprints into the painted grass of the end zone. The quarterback throws. The ball lands at the end of a long arc into the sure hands of the receiver. The crowd releases the tension with thunderous cheers. Fans start to filter out. The plumbing gets ready for a countless amount of gallons of high life to be flushed.