Don’t miss story in the Times today about the steps being taken to repair one of our major water tunnels:
For this, the city has enlisted six deep-sea divers who are living for more than a month in a sealed 24-foot tubular pressurized tank complete with showers, a television and a Nerf basketball hoop, breathing air that is 97.5 percent helium and 2.5 percent oxygen, so their high-pitched squeals are all but unintelligible. They leave the tank only to transfer to a diving bell that is lowered 70 stories into the earth, where they work 12-hour shifts, with each man taking a four-hour turn hacking away at concrete to expose the valve.
Plumber’s Job on a Giant’s Scale: Fixing New York’s Drinking Straw [NYTimes]
Intranauts!
http://gdiving.com/satSysSite/index.asp
These are the chaps doing the work.
I have mild claustrophobia. Just reading that freaks me the hell out.
Why don’t they just get their water from the river, rather than this elaborate series of tubes?
What??
Drinking from the river Ankh? I dare say they might have to chew well before swallowing..
Seriously though, I think they just don’t have the large scale filtration capabilities. There may be heavy metals and such in that (although it is way less scary than it was 20 years ago). Of course, as filtration becomes more effective and cost efficient that will likely happen.
The leak actually isn’t under NYC, but rather under a small town called Wawarsing in upstate NY, along the long path between the watershed areas in the Catskills and the city that never sleeps (and therefore is apparently very thirsty).
#8: The lower Hudson is a tidal estuary — ie, salt. (The Hudson actually flows both directions for quite some distance upstream, which makes sailing on it interesting — you can be making good speed through the water and still move backward, if the tide is against you.) Add to that the quantity needed, and desalination/filtration really isn’t a good option.
And NYC’s tap water routinely beats branded bottled water in taste tests, which is almost enough justification by itself.
I heard they’re still trying to fix the damage caused by John McClane in DIE HARD III….
Once the operation is complete, the divers must remain in the tank for a week to gradually wean themselves off helium.
Cigarettes and coffee help, and of course a reliable sponsor.
This work only became possible fairly recently, with the completion of the third aquaduct. Before that, if one of the two existing aquaducts had to be shut down for repair, they would have had to start evacuating Manhattan. The central park reservoir is totally inadequate as a backup for current needs; even if everyone was trying to conserve water it would be drained in days, maybe hours.
“The amazing thing is not how well the bear dances, but that it dances at all.”
Now that they’ve got the new tunnel, they can finally risk doing mantenance on the old ones. (One at a time, that is.)
That’s amazing. Sounds like they need to be in better shape than astronauts.
(And, just in case anyone was wondering: No, in a sailing race you are not allowed to drop anchor even if it would be the best solution.)