A sediment handling system can be installed upstream of the inlet separator to reduce silt and sand loading to the separator and discharge pump.   This handling system involves the installation of a primary separation vessel before the inlet separator to introduce additional retention time into the process stream.  This method of sediment removal is preferred to particle filtration due to the much lower pressure (vacuum) loss over the vessel relative to the bag filter.  The system is designed for easy removal of sediment into an external storage vessel for off-site disposal of treatment.