New pump motors installed in Harrisburg sub-levee

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A crew from Vandevanter Engineering of Fenton, Mo., installed two motors in the new pumping station at Harrisburg Sewerage Treatment Plant's sub-levee Wednesday, an addition that will boost the pumping capacity to a level that is expected to save the plant from future flooding danger.

Harrisburg's east side is protected from Saline River flooding by the main levee and the sub-levee is added protection for the sewer plant, the inundation of which could spell catastrophe. In the 2008 flood it was all-hands-on deck among the city workers piling sandbags into the wee hours to keep water from seeping through boils in the levee into the sewer plant.

"It got to where it was 1 1/2 feet from the top," city engineer Jim Brown said.

Between the sub-levee and the main levee is a ditch that holds significant water in flooding conditions. The pumping station will use two 20,000 gallon per minute motors with impellers to pump water into a pipe buried about a foot beneath the surface of the main levee. The station employs bays into which the water between the levees drains and the motors transfer water from the bays into the pipe and over the levee to the Saline River.

"It was high enough in April we could have used it," sewage plant worker Bobby Brown said.

The new pumps are expected to more rapidly lower water flowing from Pankey Branch to the original pumping station, which will remain in operation.

The new pumps will carry one significant advantage: They can be turned on faster than the original pumps which require a 6-foot deep pool before they are started.

Man-Tra-Con temporary workers have been working to clear brush that delays the movement of water from the city's main drainage - Pankey Branch. Crews have cleared significantly in the area of the sewerage treatment plant and have this week been clearing Pankey Branch behind Wal-Mart. Crews have also been clearing at the old lagoons on the north side of Harrisburg, another portion of the city's sewer operations.

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DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>

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