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23 Jan 2010

Storm drain – what happens when the power goes out

During heavy rains earlier this week a City of Long Beach storm water drainage pump was temporarily inoperable due to a power outage. This occurred during a peak storm period and is at least partly to blame for flooding in the area. A similar event at the same location is said to have occurred before.

Storm Drain

The added expense of installing and maintaining an engine driven pump may have been the deciding factor in favor of an electric motor driver. Given that the continuous supply of electric power during severe weather events is often compromised, the choice of electric motor drivers for storm water pumps is perhaps not the most robust civil works solution. That is not to say that choosing electric motor drives for storm water drainage pumps is “incorrect”.  But rather, an electric power outage in the middle of a severe storm should not be considered a remote possibility. And when choosing an electric motor to drive a storm water pump, appropriate backup equipment should be considered in the overall capital cost and maintenance expense budget.

Randal Ferman

23 January 2010

Filed Under: Pumps Tagged With: backup pump, Electric motor pump, Engine driven pump, engineering consulting, engineering consulting services, Long Beach stormwater, pump engineering consulting, Storm drains, Storm water pump

About Randal Ferman

I have more than 40 years’ experience in the pump industry. During my 32 years with Flowserve, a global pump manufacturer, I was active in Research & Development, marketing and sales support, manufacturing operations, field retrofits, troubleshooting and repair services, and in-house engineering training. Since 2009 I have been an independent provider of objective engineering consulting services on new and existing pumping equipment and systems. My home office is in Los Angeles, California and I provide services domestically and abroad.Connect with me on LinkedIn here.

Comments

  1. Alliance Concrete Pumps says

    June 8, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Wow, definitely sounds like an area for serious compromise. Depending on the area, there may be some very significant property damages and or losses tied to such infrastructure failure. I assume there are appropriate secondary responses in place in the event the power is cut to the drainage systems. Good Luck with that one! Dave

    Reply
    • Randal Ferman says

      June 9, 2011 at 6:15 pm

      Dave, I did not have first hand information on this event. Regardless of what backups were in place, flooding did occur. In recent history we have seen multiple backup failures and their consequences. BP’s Macondo well and Fukushima nuclear come to mind. Randy

      Reply

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