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 ...
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.
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
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.
You left off the "....NOT" at the end.
Yup. Real useful, and real dangerous. While growing up I spent WAY too many hours on tractors, bulldozers, and other farm equipment.
Order them from China. That's where all the machine tooling is now.
"yes, but they have to get huge diesel generators out to the pumping stations"
I think Stewart & Stevenson can handle that part
They should try some junk yard near an oil refinery, bet they'd find one or two there.
Electrical devices don't work when wet.
"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
Hmmm let's review . . on that day did the pumps stop working ?
Now 'days, if it moves, and ain't s'posed to: Duct Tape; if its s'posed to move and don't : WD-40.
Search open pit mines, rock quarries, gravel quarries, specific gravity pump makers.
What kind of flow rates are we talking about? gallons/second, thousand gallons/hour?
Call the Netherlands and see if they gotz any pumps.
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.
ooh boy I hope they get the direction correct on the new motors. imagine filling NOLA with even more water.
Indeed.
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.
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!
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