Old Pipes Need To Be Cleaned Manually Before Wet Weather Pump Can Open

The completion of the wet weather pump on Observer Highway that is supposed to alleviate the city's flooding problem has been suffering some delays, because of unexpected problems with the century-old piping system, according to officials.

The pump is the responsibility of the North Hudson Sewerage Authority, and is currently the organizations' biggest capital project. In April 2010, NHSA Chairman Richard Wolff said the project was scheduled to be completed by September of this year, but said the pump may be operational before that time.

The two very old pipes, also called "outflow," that are supposed to be able to pump about 100 million gallons of rainwater into the Hudson River are clogged and need to be cleaned before the pump can become operational.

The pump is supposed to help alleviate the in town, especially in the flood prone Fourth and Fifth Wards. 

The two pipes are now being cleaned from the inside by manual labor. According to a status report completed by the NHSA, "the most efficient process to clean the existing pipelines is by direct
worker entry and use of hand tools."

After the pipes are clean—the pipes are about 1000 feet long, said NHSA commissioner Tony Soares—new lining will have to be installed, before the pump can start working. According to the NHSA status report that was completed on July 18, the new lining will happen between Sept. 15 and 29.

According to that same report, one of the pipes can become operational in October.

"The latest schedule update shows that start-up of the pump station, through the west pipeline only, is projected for October 7, 2011 through October 20, 2011," stated the report. "Maintaining this schedule requires the pipeline cleaning and lining to progress according to the schedule."

Councilman-at-Large David Mello said he would like to see the pump completed as soon as possible.

"The North Hudson Sewerage Authority needs to do the absolute best job possible to anticipate problems," he said on Thursday afternoon.

Mello said he has had several conversations with the Authority's executive director, Fred Pocci. Mello said that the director told him that the pump may be operational this fall.

Pocci could not immediately be reached.

"(The pump) needs to be up as soon as possible," Mello said. "I don't want to hear that another problem came up that wasn't already anticipated."