Sandbags, pumps battle leak (this is Omaha Steve's plant!)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110709/NEWS01/707099886#sandbags-pumps-battle-leak

Published Saturday July 9, 2011

By Sam Womack
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The Missouri River may be slowly on its way down, but the pressure of all that water was too much Friday for an old pipe at Omaha’s wastewater treatment plant.

About 100 gallons a minute was gushing out of the abandoned pipe at the plant near 13th Street and Missouri Avenue, said Gordon Andersen, quality control manager for the Omaha Public Works Department.

Water pumps and more than 10,000 sandbags were brought in to control the leaking water, which pooled on the dry side of a recently constructed levee, said Aida Amoura, spokeswoman for Mayor Jim Suttle.

The new segment is an extension of the existing levee and was built to protect newer portions of the sewage treatment plant, Andersen said.

No buildings or treatment operations were expected to be affected by the leak, he said.

Andersen said a dive team based in Rapid City, S.D., was called in to locate the 15-inch pipe.

FULL story at link.

[tularetom]

1. A dive team? At a WWTP?

Those people are heroes.

[NCarolinawoman]

2. I was thinking the same thing.

I'm hope it's more than standard scuba diving equipment.