Replacement Pumps Don't Exist

Los Angeles Times ^ | September 3, 2005 | Peter Pae

[A. Pole]

Efforts to drain New Orleans hit another snag Friday as the Army Corps of Engineers discovered that it could not buy new pumps to replace those damaged by the flooding.

Massive pumps capable of draining the city like those that have been keeping New Orleans dry for decades are no longer made and would have to be specially ordered, a process that would take too long, said Col. Richard Wagenaar, the senior corps official in New Orleans.

Instead, repair crews will have to dry out the existing pumps, which could take up to a week, before repairing them with replacement motors and parts and begin pumping water back into Lake Pontchartrain. The repair job could prolong efforts to drain the city, about 80% of which is submerged.

"These pumps are so big, you can't buy them off the shelf. You have to make them, and we don't have time for that," said Wagenaar, who spent about an hour Friday escorting President Bush around the levee damage at the 17th Street Canal.

The city, much of which is below sea level, relies on a network of 22 pumps to keep water out. Army engineers now believe eight pumps are underwater.

The latest wrinkle illustrated the enormous complexity of draining the city, which for more than 200 years had gradually built up an elaborate system to keep itself dry.

Even with the setback, Wagenaar said, the city could be drained in three to six months, mainly because engineers may finally be able to get to the largest pump station, at the end of the 17th Street Canal, as early as today.

[...]

[Wonder Warthog]

"...20 feet vertical rise is NOT a few feet, and the rate a 3 inch line pumps water at is NOT significant when we are considering over a billion cubic yards of water!"

Another consideration is that the effective thing to do is run the pump lines down the OTHER SIDE of the levee. By doing so, you establish a "siphon effect", so that the actual EFFECTIVE head IS "a few feet" rather than the height of the levee.

Of course, your pumps have to have enough "oommpphh" to push water "over the hump" to start the siphon effect, but once that is done, the entire energy capacity of the pump can go to overcoming friction instead of overcoming gravity.

[kjam22]

Get those lazy good for nothing people that sit on there ass all day and collect welfare money from taxpayers and form a bucket birgade

W O R K ??

[Smokin' Joe]

SHeesh! Maybe they should find some old oilfield duplex pumps. They are skid mounted, truck transportable, and if set up with a cat motor on another skid can move a lot of water. A lot of triplex pumps are busy on drilling rigs, but who knows?

[mewzilla]

Another buggy whip industry gone!

Well, I know where they can go to get brand new, state of the art pumps. They didn't have to keep using these old ones, especially if they were wearing out and replacement parts and/or pumps were going to be difficult/impossible to get. Jeepers creepers, where the heck is these peoples' common sense?!

[ninenot]

Yah, hey.

The A-C engineer who designed the internals of the Hoover Dam lived around the corner from us...

Sad. The Company was key to the manufacture of Fat Boy (machining), built about 1/3rd of the tractors/combines in the USA, built marine engines bigger than most duplexes, etc., etc.--and now its main manufacturing facility is used as a K-Mart.

The company's name and (negative) assets were sold to--get this--a manufacturer of brassiere-padding (!!!!) for the tax-loss-carryforward.

[xcamel]

6000 GPM or so..

[Smokin' Joe]

17000 gpm tractor pto, trailer mounted pump made in Texas

[RaceBannon]

Ok, a pump that size will, but Fire Trucks do NOT carry them, nor are we going to purchase 1000 pumps off the shelf, are we?

So, where will we get 1000 pumps that size that will drain a city the size of New Orleans?

New Orleans Facts and Statistics
Here are interesting facts about New Orleans. ... New Orleans covers 4190 square
miles and sits 90 miles north from the mouth of the Mississippi River. ...
www.neworleansonline.com/ neworleans/business/factstats.html

4190 sq miles = [(5280 x 12in)(5280 x 12in)= one square mile in inches]= 4,014,489,600 sq inches x 4190 mi = 16,820,711,424,000 sq inches

x 6 feet of water = (6 x 12 in) x (16,820,711,424,000) = 1,211,091,222,528,000 cu inches minimum of water to be drained

1 gal = 231 cu in x 1000 = 231,000 cu in of water a minute that can be drained using your numbers using your pumps

1,211,091,222,528,000 cu in of water existing / 231,000 cu in of water that can be drained using your pumps = 5,242,819,145.1 minutes to drain that volume

87,380,319.1 hours

1,456,338.7 days!!

Someone check this math, please!

Now, divide the amount of water height in half, that is 500,000 days!

Show me where the math is wrong here. Did I make a mistake?

[farmer18th]

New Orleans doesn't deserve to be re-built.

[evolved_rage]

Get those lazy good for nothing people that sit on there ass all day and collect welfare money from taxpayers and form a bucket birgade

Lazy, just wait until the rebuilding starts, you'll not see a soul until its done. Then there'll be recriminations for who got the jobs rebuilding.

[RaceBannon]

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2005-10,GGLD:en&q=New+Orleans+size+square+miles

see post 269

[Puppage]

Show me where the math is wrong here. Did I make a mistake?

I'll take your word for it, Race. I HATE math. :-)

[RaceBannon]

Using the new rate of 17,000 GPM...

4190 sq miles = [(5280 x 12in)(5280 x 12in)= one square mile in inches]= 4,014,489,600 sq inches x 4190 mi = 16,820,711,424,000 sq inches

x 6 feet of water = (6 x 12 in) x (16,820,711,424,000) = 1,211,091,222,528,000 cu inches minimum of water to be drained

1 gal = 231 cu in x 17000 = 3,927,000 cu in of water a minute that can be drained using your numbers using your pumps

1,211,091,222,528,000 cu in of water existing / 3,927,000 cu in of water that can be drained using your pumps = 308,401,126.2 minutes to drain that volume

5,140,018.8 hours

85,667 days!!

[mewzilla]

That's good brand! :)

[RaceBannon]

Now, I forgot, multiply that times 1000 pumps

But first, GET 1000 pumps there.....

[Smokin' Joe]

perfect.

[RaceBannon]

No, I made a mistake, those numbers were for a single pump.

The problem would be getting 1000 pumps with that capability there, which was mostly my original point.

[RaceBannon]

no, not perfect, that was for one pump only, not multiple pumps

Well, At least I got the math right, if not the logic...(sigh)...

[cgbg]

New Atlantis

I prefer "New Orleans Archipelago" myself. :-)

[eternity]

Our industrial base has moved to China. That little Texas with big ears was right when he ran for President. The other is the corrupt political machine running state and city government in LA.