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Replacement Pumps Don't Exist
Los Angeles Times ^ | September 3, 2005 | Peter Pae

Posted on 09/03/2005 6:36:23 PM PDT by 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.

[...]

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; US: Louisiana; US: Mississippi
KEYWORDS: cafta; corpsofengineers; free; hurricane; incompetence; katrina; katrinafailures; market; nafta; neworleans; outsourcing; trade
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To: the invisib1e hand
there are some pretty big pumps around.

Yes, there are some very big pumping systems out there; the biggest that I can think of are the ones used for "pumped-storage" hydroelectric, like at Raccoon Mountain: http://www.tva.gov/sites/raccoonmt.htm

I don't know if any of that technology would be applicable here (I don't think any of it is designed to even be slightly mobile), but I wonder if it wouldn't be worth contacting one of the companies that make those pumping systems and see if there is anything that could be done.

41 posted on 09/03/2005 6:57:07 PM PDT by snowsislander
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To: A. Pole

Begin rant...
Massive pumps of that sort never have been an off-the-shelf item, except in industries that recognized their critical vulnerabilities.

This is only a rude awakening to those who have come to power by believing all things are available off-the-shelf.


Hmmmm, solutions to once in a lifetime catastrophes aren't just off the shelf commodities? Go figure. Next approach is with the professionals who know how to engineer the solution backed by financial resources and heavy industry to build the solution,....but then again that's resorting to a capitalistic model that just isn't politically correct in a socialist world.

end rant


42 posted on 09/03/2005 6:57:27 PM PDT by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: oceanview
yes, but they have to get huge diesel generators out to the pumping stations.

Didn't they drive a locomotive engine down the street, to get it in position to supply power to a city in Quebec? I recall they had to rebuild the street after the weight of locomotive destroyed it.

43 posted on 09/03/2005 6:57:38 PM PDT by Mark was here (How can they be called "Homeless" if their home is a field?.)
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To: A. Pole

You left off the "....NOT" at the end.


44 posted on 09/03/2005 6:57:55 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: AnAmericanMother
"Never underestimate the PTO on a tractor! (Just keep your hands and clothing away from it, 'kay?)"

Yup. Real useful, and real dangerous. While growing up I spent WAY too many hours on tractors, bulldozers, and other farm equipment.

45 posted on 09/03/2005 6:58:05 PM PDT by Wonder Warthog (The Hog of Steel)
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To: Cvengr

Order them from China. That's where all the machine tooling is now.


46 posted on 09/03/2005 6:58:27 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: oceanview

"yes, but they have to get huge diesel generators out to the pumping stations"


I think Stewart & Stevenson can handle that part


47 posted on 09/03/2005 6:59:09 PM PDT by Figment
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To: A. Pole
could not buy new pumps to replace those damaged by the flooding.

They should try some junk yard near an oil refinery, bet they'd find one or two there.

48 posted on 09/03/2005 6:59:54 PM PDT by scouse
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To: Ichneumon

Electrical devices don't work when wet.


49 posted on 09/03/2005 7:00:36 PM PDT by Concentrate
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To: A. Pole

"Pumping water out faster is the goal of the SELA rainflood project in the New Orleans area, and that requires more pumping capacity. The heart of a new pump at Elmwood Pump Station in Metairie is this 11-foot diameter impeller. Bobby Porche, foreman for installation contractor Universal Compression of Houma, works with Mike Steagall, right, the Corps’ SELA Jefferson Parish project engineer. The Elmwood expansion’s two new pumps will move 2,400 cubic feet per second, a 71 percent increase. As viewed, the impeller rotates counter-clockwise, pushing water (left) into Lake Pontchartrain. Partners on the estimated $16.5-million project are the Corps and Jefferson Parish."

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/PastFeatures/PastFeatures.htm


50 posted on 09/03/2005 7:00:38 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: A. Pole

Hmmm let's review . . on that day did the pumps stop working ?


51 posted on 09/03/2005 7:00:39 PM PDT by ChadGore (VISUALIZE 62,041,268 Bush fans.)
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To: AnAmericanMother
My daddy was a Combat Engineer, and he has always been amazingly handy at building things out of nothing and fixing stuff with chewing gum and baling wire.

Now 'days, if it moves, and ain't s'posed to: Duct Tape; if its s'posed to move and don't : WD-40.

52 posted on 09/03/2005 7:01:33 PM PDT by Keith in Iowa (Looters: undocumented consumers || Looting: purchases with indefinite deferred payment plans)
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To: A. Pole

Search open pit mines, rock quarries, gravel quarries, specific gravity pump makers.


53 posted on 09/03/2005 7:01:45 PM PDT by Cvengr (<;^))
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To: xcamel
Funny.. there are hundreds of pit mine pumps of similar volume capacity available in storage from former mining operations all over the rockies.

What kind of flow rates are we talking about? gallons/second, thousand gallons/hour?

54 posted on 09/03/2005 7:01:49 PM PDT by Doe Eyes
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To: A. Pole

Call the Netherlands and see if they gotz any pumps.


55 posted on 09/03/2005 7:01:49 PM PDT by elli1
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To: tophat9000

I like the New Atlantis idea. Everyone knows that after we restore this city to normal another storm could do the same thing. Here's a news flash to all those people who want to rebuild, IF YOU LIVE UNDER SEA LEVEL NEXT TO THE SEA YOU MIGHT WANT TO MOVE DUHHH!! Leave the city as is,leave the trouble makers to fend for themselves(hopefully they will be self eliminating)as they see fit.


56 posted on 09/03/2005 7:02:02 PM PDT by TazforPrez (Save your children!Get them out of govt. schools now.)
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To: oceanview

ooh boy I hope they get the direction correct on the new motors. imagine filling NOLA with even more water.


57 posted on 09/03/2005 7:02:05 PM PDT by drlevy88
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To: Cvengr

Indeed.


58 posted on 09/03/2005 7:02:23 PM PDT by Concentrate
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To: A. Pole

Dang! Same thing happened in New Jersey after Hurricane Floyd 1999. I discovered my surface water pump (I wanted to help out my sump pump in the sump pit) wouldn't work. So I went to the Home Depot and wouldn't you know it, they were all out of water pumps!

Fortunately I had a wet/dry vac as a backup.

I did eventually get a replacement pump. The mayor can borrow it and the vac if he wants.


59 posted on 09/03/2005 7:03:38 PM PDT by Incorrigible (If I lead, follow me; If I pause, push me; If I retreat, kill me.)
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To: A. Pole

I wonder if they even work? When was the last time they were tested? Were they on all the time before the flood. Questions, questions, questions!


60 posted on 09/03/2005 7:03:44 PM PDT by InvisibleChurch (I support the firemen, but not their cause.)
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