One-year anniversary — ‘Never again,’ says waterworks manager

Wilcox, water crews still work on crisis plans

BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER

OTTUMWA — “Never again.”

That’s what Richard Wilcox recently said about last year’s water woes.

The waterworks general manager meant what he said. Since the Aug. 24, 2007 water crisis, he and his team have studied, brainstormed and worked diligently to find ways to prevent another event like that one.

The pump room was the first place on Wilcox’s tour of changes at Ottumwa Water Works, which purifies water for drinking. That’s where the storm water from heavy rains entered the plant and the crisis began.

“See this red motor here? Our first move, if crisis occurs, is to pull this motor and get it upstairs. We didn’t have time last year and the contaminated water damaged all the pumps,” he said.

Now the plant has a hoist that can pick up the third motor and take it up high and away from the basement-level pumping area.

“That’s one component we’ve changed,” he said. “We don’t run all three pumps — two are alike and the third one is upstairs. It’s a preventative thing to eliminate the threat and we’ve developed the concept of a remote storage place ... so we wouldn’t be waiting for clean motors.”

Across from the pump area were ground-level louvres, which were the point of entry for fouled water. Wilcox speculated the vents were there to cool pump motors because the electrical usage in the room “makes a lot of heat.”

Last year’s deluge overwhelmed an already overtaxed sewer beside Ottumwa Water and Hydro’s water purification plant. Wilcox said that sewer drains a 600-acre area and the storm water’s rush blew off the sewer’s cover, which had several inches of concrete and dirt on it.

Sewage and Des Moines River water entered the basement and the water plant’s front doors visitors enter.

“We did a lot of cleaning here. For weeks we were scrubbing, wiping down and disinfecting,” he said. “We have new paint and polished floors now.”

Another component of protection is an additional sump pump, a third one that’s bigger than the other two put together, Wilcox said.

The sewer line out front is capped with a large quantity of concrete and dirt. There’s now a T-valve on that line and Wilcox said the valve will soon be controlled electronically.

“We’re open 24/7. There’s always an operator here and with one click of a mouse he can activate the T-valve and shut it down,” he said.

After the initial contamination, the waterworks plant was a busy place while the Iowa National Guard built a berm, which is still there. But, it’s eroding some and may come down in November.

Also on the front of the building is a heavy-duty plywood wall, which is a “prototype for a permanent structure.”

“When we have a threat of sewer overflow, we can put this wall in place and it’ll protect the original doors from floodwaters,” Wilcox said. “We’ll eventually have a concrete wall of double thickness. This is a temporary wall and may be stored later.”

Wilcox doesn’t claim to have everything figured out.

“How do we deal with river flooding? The crisis was from inland flooding,” he said. “We need some permanent version [of the berm] and we’re working on that.”

The plant’s protection was built to the standard of a 100-year flood and the weather delivered a 500-year flood. Wilcox and his team continue to work on a standard that protects the city from any threat to its drinking water.

“It wasn’t any one thing that saved us last year,” Wilcox said. “It was the total of everyone’s effort.”

Numerous emergency workers responded in the early hours of Friday, Aug. 24, while heavy rains dumped at least four inches on the city. When Ottumwans awakened, no water was available for showers, dishwashing or laundry. Businesses couldn’t use water, either.

Just like a typical basement can get flooded when sewers back up during a heavy rain, the basement at the water works flooded. Wilcox estimated the untreated sewage in the basement at “six to seven feet” deep.

The motors running the pumps which move clean water to residences are built into the basement and they were completely submerged. Because they were soaked, Wilcox ordered them not to operate.

Wilcox sent the pump motors to Cedar Rapids for cleaning and drying and he assured the public the drinking water hadn’t been contaminated by sewer water or river water.

Then the general manager and his team — which included emergency crews last August — did what hadn’t been done before.

What did they do? Wilcox’s idea was to have three fire trucks at the waterworks and use the trucks’ pumps to draw water out of the on-site reservoir and send thousands of gallons of water into the three closest fire hydrants.

This reverse process — putting water into a hydrant, which usually spews out water — put pressure back into the city’s system.

While fire crews did this, pump setter technicians from Cargill removed the dirty pumps and later replaced them after they were decontaminated in Cedar Rapids.

Wilcox said if the plan had failed, the water supply would have been contaminated and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources would have required the city’s system be flushed with certain chemicals.

The plan didn’t fail and the crews saved the city from five to eight waterless days by a scant margin of 15-30 minutes and 30,000 gallons of water.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.

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