ourpump.com blog

The Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on a serious construction project: a 150,000-gallon-per-second, $500m pumping station charged with keeping the city of New Orleans a little, uh, dryer than it has been in the last few years.

The pump is just a small part of a larger $14bn plan to seal up New Orleans’ levees and bolster the city’s disaster preparedness, but it’s without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci’s thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they’re necessary—see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That’s a full-sized human being. There aren’t a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money’s on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:

At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational—and NOLA slightly safer—by 2011.

Fluid motion and control solutions provider Flowserve has won an order of approximately $8 million for pumps from Shell Malaysia Exploration & Production to aid in the oil recovery efforts for the St Joseph field, located in the South China Sea.

The St Joseph field comes under the North Sabah 1996 production sharing contract. Shell and its co-venturer Petronas Carigali are the production sharing contractors of the Malaysian national oil company Petronas with Shell being the operator.

The order was booked with Flowserve in an earlier quarter in 2009 via a Malaysian company, Enserv Sendirian. Flowserve barrel pumps will be used on the redevelopment project to inject seawater into the field to boost oil extraction.

Tom Ferguson, president of Flowserve Pump Division, said: “This is another example of the world’s leading energy companies relying on Flowserve to help them increase their production capabilities.

“Our customers are responding to increasing global demand for oil, which is driving continued infrastructure investment. Flowserve is well-equipped to meet these needs through our extensive product offerings used in the upstream business, and our service facilities located throughout the Asia-Pacific region.”

A gas station pump burst into flames after a truck backed into the pumps. The fiery explosion threatened a small child - and the whole incident was all caught on video.

NewsChannel 5 reporter Jeff Tang talked to the man who saved the day.

Each day, Casey Kahasay adds to a remarkable streak when he shows up for work at his Shell gas station on the corner of Tiny Town Road and Fort Campbell Boulevard in Clarksville.

Since 2006, Casey has not taken a vacation - not even on a weekend.

“I’ve never had a day off,” he said.

Casey deserved one after what happened at his store Sunday night.

“I was nervous,” he said. “I never had that experience before.”

Just after 10 p.m. Sunday, one of Casey’s regular customers stopped by to fill her tires up with air. As she walked into the store for change, the truck started moving backwards with her 2-year-old child in the back.

“I see the truck moving back and it hit [the pump],” Casey said.

Video surveillance showed a burst of flames behind the truck.

Casey sprang into action. He told the woman to grab the child while he brought out fire extinguishers.

“The flame was from the pump to the truck - to a little bit higher,” said Casey.

As he fought the fire, witnesses like Rich Palleschi watched in horror.

“I was fearing the worst - not just the pumps, but the tanks underneath. Plus, I run a [fireworks store} right across the street,” said Rich.

It took three extinguishers and a garden hose, but Casey held off the flames long enough for firefighters to arrive and finish the job.

“That’s Casey. That says ‘Casey’ every day. I’m not surprised by it. He doesn’t want a pat on the back for it - that’s something he would have done for anybody,” said customer Al Ellison.

So why did Casey risk his life for a stranger’s child? He has his own children - ages 7 and 4.

“That was my life. I work hard for this store because of these two kids,” he said.

Amazingly, no one was injured during the explosion. By mid-afternoon on Monday, the other pumps were back in working order at Casey’s Shell station - and his attendance streak continued.

“Still, I’m going to work - got to keep going,” he said.

Police advise children should not be left in a vehicle by themselves when adults go into a store - even if just for a brief time.

AUBURN — Water industry leaders from across Northern California gathered Friday (June 12) in Auburn for a business meeting and tour of the Placer County Water Agency’s innovative American River Pump Station.

The occasion was a joint meeting of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), Region 3; and the Mountain Counties Water Resources Association (MCWRA). Co-hosted by PCWA and the Nevada Irrigation District (NID), the meeting attracted about 80 people to the The Ridge Golf Club and Event Center in Auburn.

Featured speakers were John Woodling, executive director of the Sacramento-based Regional Water Authority (RWA) and Victoria Whitney, chief of the Division of Water Rights of the California Water Resources Control Board.

Woodling’s presentation focused on the governor’s call for a statewide 20 percent reduction in urban water use by the year 2020. He said a “one size fits all” approach to water conservation will not work and that conservation can best be accomplished by local agencies. “Under our existing regional plan we will achieve a 20 percent reduction by 2025,” he said.

Whitney provided an overview of the state’s role in the often complicated world of water rights. She explained the many different kinds of water rights in California, including “area-of-origin” rights held by many of the mountain counties represented at the meeting.

Following the business meeting, guests traveled to the American River canyon for a guided tour of the PCWA American River Pump Station. The $76 million pump station and river restoration project is designed to supply American River water to Placer County while restoring the American River to its natural channel at the site where an Auburn Dam was once planned.

Completed in 2008, the project combines a whitewater channel that allows recreational use with an adjacent underground diversion structure built into the river bottom. The horizontal screen diversion reduces sedimentation while providing for the safe passage of both fish and recreational watercraft.

“This project returned three miles of river to the public, and PCWA regained access to a critical water supply,” said PCWA Deputy Director of Technical Services Brent Smith, who led the tour.

Based in the Placer County seat of Auburn, PCWA holds rights to 280,000 acre-feet of water and serves more than 250,000 people. The agency operates the Middle Fork American River Project which produces hydroelectric energy as well as water for home, business and agricultural uses.