Water & Wastewater Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1223154
Pumps help prevent catastrophe at reservoir A rapid emergency response by specialist hire company SLD Pumps & Power helped save lives, property and the local aquatic ecosystem a er the recent partial collapse of Toddbrook Reservoir dam in the Derbyshire town of Whaley Bridge. A s part of the effort to reduce reservoir water levels to avert a potential catastrophic failure of the dam, SLD initially deployed 17 of its high-capacity pumps and related equipment. As the emergency continued, the company quickly deployed five mobile generators with a combined capacity of 1MW, five large submersible pumps, Variable Speed Drives (VSDs), and 500 metres of 12-inch high-pressure hose, plus accessories to deal with variable deployment areas. "I received the emergency call at 3pm that the dam was in danger of failing and water levels had to be quickly reduced," said Richard Broughton, SLD's national contracts manager who led the project. "By 4.30 pm we had the equipment on site ready to go. "It was one of the most important and high-pressure projects we have been involved with. The Environment Agency issued an evacuation order for the en- dangered area; however, not all residents would leave their homes. It required a huge team effort on the part of everyone involved to avert disaster." SLD worked alongside others in a multi-agency response. Shortly a"er the initial deployment, in view of the continuing vulnerability of the dam sup- port wall, the water authorities called for further pumping capacity on site. SLD worked with its supply chain to source the additional pumps, connection hoses and power generators, with equipment transported from Newcastle, Manchester and Nottingham. The emergency plan required water levels in the reservoir to be reduced at a rate of 1.1 cubic metres per second; with the combined efforts of SLD and other operators, the rate of removal actually achieved was 11 cubic metres per second. A"er four days, the pumping operation removed an estimated 1.27 billion litres of water, reducing pressure on the dam and helping to avoid a potential disaster. "The rapid reduction of water lev- els caused a secondary problem – the concentration of fish in the ever-smaller volume of water," said Broughton. "Oxy- Pumps & valves: Case Study gen levels were quickly depleting and threatening fish stocks, so we provided aeration equipment to maintain oxygen levels in the water to protect the estimat- ed eight tonnes of fish and the rest of the aquatic ecosystem." 36 | APRIL 2020 | WWT | www.wwtonline.co.uk Flexible hoses extracting water from the reservoir. Water was removed at a rate of 11 cubic metres per second. SLD provided the necessary equip- ment, with engineers remaining on site round-the-clock until water levels were reduced to the target level, and the emer- gency was fully contained.