Crews with Berkeley Springs Water Works helped a crane navigate a broken water pump and its components out the roof of the treatment plant building on Wilkes Street last Friday morning, April 19.
Removal of the pump and its attached casing was necessary to get the machinery in the hands of a Hagerstown company that will rebuild it and return it to service.
Chief Water Operator Rick Mayhew said the main pump that pushes treated water out to holding tanks and customers was damaged when the clear well it sits in didn’t get water for some period of time.
There was no alarm to alert water operators that the clear well wasn’t full, so the pump ran in less than ideal conditions and was damaged.
Mayhew said the company that will rebuild the pump should have it back to the treatment plant in two to three weeks. In the meantime, the water system will operate with just one pump.
According to Mayhew, the primary pump was moving 360 gallons of “finished” water per minute before it stopped working. The Gould pump was installed in 2003, said Mayhew. He said the pumps are very durable but have to work within limited parameters to last.
A hatch in the top of the treatment plant building was opened to allow a crane to lift the heavy pump and a 10-ft. casing out and onto a flatbed truck. The rebuilt pump will be reattached to the casing and lowered back in when it returns to Berkeley Springs.
Mayhew said the Water Works is seeking funding to upgrade many of its monitoring and control systems.
