WA - Factoria reservoir overflows: Malfunction sends flood toward office buildingsgreenspun.com : LUSENET : Grassroots Information Coordination Center (GICC) : One Thread |
2001-04-28 by Jeff Switzer Journal ReporterBELLEVUE -- At least 50,000 gallons of drinking water were lost yesterday morning when a reservoir in Factoria overflowed.
The water pushed a torrent of mud toward two office buildings -- one housing the headquarters of VoiceStream -- on Southeast 38th Street and Factoria Boulevard.
Chlorinated drinking water also ended up in Richards Creek.
Two separate alarms -- designed to signal an overflow -- failed to sound at the Coal Creek Utility District headquarters, General Manager Tom Peadon said.
``Unfortunately, malfunctions happen,'' Peadon said.
The 3-million-gallon reservoir was automatically refilling with fresh drinking water when sensors failed, utility district Assistant Manager Larry Jones said.
A sensor failed to detect when the reservoir was full, and the water pumps continued to churn. A second sensor failed to sound an alarm when the reservoir was overflowing, Jones said.
Nor were reservoir levels accurately recorded electronically at the district headquarters.
``It was a double failure, which is very, very unusual,'' Jones said. ``The alarms were checked just one month ago and were functioning.''
http://www.eastsidejournal.com/sited/story/html/52014
-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), May 01, 2001