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Lift station alarm text for wet well, pump and hydro outages

A lift station alarm text puts the station, the pump and the wet well level on the standby operator's cellphone before their boots are on. Add your Welco address to the station alarm email your SCADA sends now. Wet well high, pump fail and power loss each arrive as one short line, at 3 a.m. or any hour.

Text me my lift station alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

  • No dialer or phone line
  • Nothing added at the station
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Pump & lift stations
  • Ignition
  • GE iFIX

Setup guide for

  • VTScada

A lift station wet well in section: the lead pump fails, the level rises past the OFF, LEAD ON and LAG ON floats to 8.6 ft and tips the 8 ft high-alarm float. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Lift Station 7] Pump 2 FAIL, wet well 2.1 m at 3:04 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: a long Lift station SCADA alert email is trimmed into one short text: "Welco: [Lift Station 7] Pump 2 FAIL, wet well 2.1 m at 3:04 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

What lands on the standby operator's phone

  • Station, alarm and wet well level

    One line says which station, what failed and how high the well is. The tag name and the viewer link stay in the email.

  • Nights to standby, days to the crew

    After-hours routing sends night and weekend alarms to the standby phone and daytime alarms to the whole crew.

  • A spring melt doesn't mean 30 texts

    When every low-lying station goes HIGH together, flood control holds phones to a few texts. The SCADA screen keeps the full list.

  • No phone line to look after

    The alarm email your SCADA already sends takes over the dialer's job of telling a person, so no copper line has to stay live.

Which lift station alarms deserve a text

Every lift station has a short list of alarms that can end in a sewage overflow or a basement backup. Those belong on a phone through SCADA alarm notification. Everything else can wait for the morning report. For reservoirs, standpipes and wells, see tank and well level alarm texts.

  • Wet well HIGH and HIGH HIGH. Inflow is beating what the pumps can move.
  • Pump fail to start, or pump fault. Often an overload, a seal leak or a float frozen or stuck.
  • Hydro power fail, or generator running. The station is on backup power or close to losing it.
  • Comm fail. SCADA has lost the radio or cellular link, so you can't see that station.
  • Intrusion or hatch open. Someone is inside a fenced site after hours.

A spring thaw night across two stations

Rain on melting snow loads several stations at once, and wet snow can take down hydro lines. Here is how the night runs with Welco.

  1. Hydro drops at Lift Station 2

    Urgent alarm LS_02_PWR was triggered at 2026-10-06 9:10:44 PM.

  2. The standby phone hears the generator took over

    Welco: [LS 2] Hydro power FAIL, generator running at 9:10 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  3. Lift Station 11's wet well passes HIGH HIGH

    Urgent alarm LS_11_WW_HH was triggered at 2026-10-06 10:40:03 PM.

  4. A HIGH HIGH rule brings in the chief operator

    Wet well HIGH HIGH goes to the standby operator and the chief operator. A plain HIGH stays with standby alone.

  5. Both phones get the overflow warning

    Welco: [LS 11 Riverside] Wet well HIGH HIGH, 2.9 m at 10:40 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  6. Standby answers from the pickup

    Genset fine at LS 2. Heading to LS 11 now

  7. The chief operator sees the plan in the alarm mailbox

    Welco emails replies to the alarm's sender. A reply is a note for people and acknowledges nothing in SCADA.

    Reply from the standby phone: Genset fine at LS 2. Heading to LS 11 now

Times are an example. Text delivery depends on mobile networks.

Send lift station alarms to the on-call phone in 4 steps

This works once the station's alarms reach a SCADA server, a telemetry service or an RTU that can send email. The SCADA alarm setup steps cover the SCADA side in full.

  1. Find where the alarm email comes from

    Most lift stations report to a central SCADA over radio or cellular, and the SCADA sends the email. Some cellular RTUs and telemetry services email alarms directly. Write down the sending address.

  2. Approve that sender and invite your operators

    In Welco, add the sending address to the senders allowed to text operators. Then invite each operator. They join with their own cellphone and reply YES to a first text.

  3. Add your Welco address to the alarm email

    Wherever the alarm email's recipients live, add your Welco address. If an old Bell address like 6135550109@txt.bell.ca is there, replace it. A US water district made this same swap.

  4. Lift a float or force a test alarm

    Set off one real alarm at a station you trust, such as a test HIGH level. Check that the text names the right station and reaches the right phone.

Get your next wet well alarm on a phone

Send your lift station alarm email to Welco and invite the standby operator.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my lift station alarmsBook a demo

More lift station alarm texts

Masked examples of the alarms water and wastewater operators and municipal public works crews send to a phone. A one-text trim rule shapes each one.

  • Seal: Welco: [LS 5] Pump 1 seal leak alarm at 6:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Hatch: Welco: [LS 13] Wet well hatch OPEN, intrusion at 10:52 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Heat: Welco: [LS 4] Building temp LOW, 3 C at 4:21 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Seal, "Welco: [LS 5] Pump 1 seal leak alarm at 6:14 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Hatch, "Welco: [LS 13] Wet well hatch OPEN, intrusion at 10:52 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Heat, "Welco: [LS 4] Building temp LOW, 3 C at 4:21 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Get station alarms to the right person

Small crews cover a lot of stations, often across a wide rural area. A few rules keep the right phone buzzing.

  • Split stations by area

    If the east and west ends of the municipality have their own crews, an alarm rule matches the station name and picks the phone.

  • Weekly standby handover

    If operators rotate standby by the week, change the standby phone in Welco at handover. SCADA keeps sending to the same address.

  • Comm fail to the day crew

    A comm fail at a station with a working float backup can wait for morning. Text it to the day crew only.

Frequently asked questions

Can Welco take over from the autodialer at a lift station?

It can take over the part that tells a person, as long as the alarm reaches a system that sends email. If the station already reports to SCADA, the SCADA email is enough. If the dialer is the only thing watching the station, add an RTU or telemetry link that can email first.

Does Welco touch the station PLC or the SCADA radio network?

No. Welco never talks to a station, a PLC or the radio system. It only receives the alarm email after your SCADA or telemetry service sends it. Nothing goes into the station panel.

Who gets the text when two operators share standby?

Both, if both have joined and sit on the same rule. Each phone gets one copy. Time-based routing can also send nights to one number and days to another.

Can the standby operator clear the station alarm with a reply?

No. A reply arrives in your alarm mailbox as an email, which shows the crew who went out. The alarm is still acknowledged in SCADA or at the station, same as now.

Will a return to normal send a text too?

Only if the SCADA emails it and you let it through. Many crews want to know a wet well came back down. Others keep clears in email. A Welco rule can drop emails that say Normal or Cleared, so only live alarms turn into texts.

Does this work for irrigation and stormwater pump stations?

Yes. If a station's alarm reaches an email, it can become a text, whatever the pump moves. The same setup suits canal pumps and gates in southern Alberta irrigation country. See irrigation district alarm texts for the alarms they route.

What do lift station alarm texts cost?

Welco charges no per-user fees, no hardware costs and no setup fee. Each short station alarm uses one message credit per phone it reaches, and a trim rule keeps a long scanner email to one credit. See the pricing page for plans, all in US dollars.

Hear about the next wet well alarm before it overflows

Add your Welco address to the station alarm email so the standby operator gets a text.

Text me my lift station alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing