US nuclear aircraft carrier George Bush crippled by toilet outages

The A Register (UK) ^ | November 17, 2011 | Lewis Page

[gman992]

I think some guy on here knows way too much information about sh#tters....after it hits the water, I couldn’t care less where it goes...

[Allegra]

I have a friend who is currently deployed on the George Bush.

Next time he pops up in port and can communicate regularly, I'm going to have to tease him a little about this.

[New Jersey Realist]

When my submarine went through overhaul at Newport News back in 1982 there was a joke going around that Thom McCan Corp. bought out the shipyard because no one else knew what to do with 10,000 loafers!

[New Jersey Realist]

Good one!

[cva66snipe]

When my submarine went through overhaul at Newport News back in 1982 there was a joke going around that Thom McCan Corp. bought out the shipyard because no one else knew what to do with 10,000 loafers!

Be glad you didn't go through Norfolk Naval Shipyards LOL. I did a total of 18 months there. Good yard but located in Portsmouth. Nice night time place to be..

NNSBDD is our only carrier builder left. They built all but 4 of the super carriers {Forrestal-present} which were Saratoga, Independence, Kitty Hawk, & Connie I think. It's owned by Huntington Ingalls Industries and is the largest private owned shipyard in the nation.

[GATOR NAVY]

Probably has “green” Al Gore toilets that pretend to flush with not enough water.

Ship heads flush using saltwater firemain so there is no reason to worry about the amount of water used. However, you may be on the right track here. Did they screw things up trying out some new system when the old system worked well enough? Of all ships I was on (and a couple over 40 years old), we never had every head on the ship go down at the same time.

[BooBoo1000]

I always figured those carriers were full of crap...

[cva66snipe]

Gator these type flush with potable water according too the article. A completely different system than even the CHT system in the early 80’s. Using your fresh water on a ship for flushing sounds like a very stupid idea especially when it’s a steaming ship which a nuke carrier is.

[GATOR NAVY]

I didn’t see that. How stupid is flushing with fresh water? Fresh water is a valuable commodity at sea even if you aren’t on a steamer. We went to water hours more on the gas turbine FFG I was on than we ever did on the three steam plants I was on.

[cva66snipe]

Yep and what happened on the Bush was 100% avoidable two ways. One would be salt water flushing and the other going back too what worked and had the least issues. The CHT system worked we had it my last MED cruise. Before that it was flush and out too sea it went.

But this disaster sounds like something EPA & NOAA mandated. Fresh water means survival for both ship and crew. One bad flushometer {flush regulator} on a commode can waste hundreds of gallons of needed water real fast. {I'm a retired maintenance mechanic in my civilian job}.