Utilities crews working overtime
Power outages impact pumping stations
By SUZETTE PORTER
| Article published on Monday, June 23, 2008 |
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| Progress Energy’s power outage map shows numerous locations along the beaches south of Indian Rocks Beach and east to Seminole without power Monday night. |
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PINELLAS COUNTY - Utilities officials sent out a plea to customers to curtail the use of water Monday night after a mechanical failure at a Progress Energy substation left 17 pump stations without power.
Jim Dulaney, Waste Water Treatment manager for south county, said four mobile crews were using generators to try to prevent sewer overloads at 17 pump stations in locations south of Indian Rocks Beach through Treasure Island as well as Oakhurst and Seminole.
He said three stations were at critical levels, including the main station in Seminole around the Oakhurst area.
Dulaney said the crews were going station to station manually monitoring the sewer levels and, as levels began to rise, bringing in generators to power the station to try to pull the levels down.
“We’re at the height of the high flow,” Dulaney said about 10:30 p.m. “People are starting to get ready for bed, taking showers and using water.”
Crews began work around 4:30 p.m., and Dulaney said he expected the work to continue until early Tuesday morning. He said the most recent estimate from Progress Energy was that power might not be restored until after midnight. He said even after the power was restored, it would take hours to get levels back to normal at the pumping stations.
Dulaney said Progress Energy had told him that the power failure happened after one of the main switches at a substation overloaded and caught fire.
As many as 33,000 people were out of power, according to information on Progress Energy’s Outage map. Calls to Progress Energy were not returned.
The biggest danger, Dulaney said, is that manhole could start overflowing raw sewage.
“That’s the worst case scenario,” he said. “If that happens we’ll call in help from other municipalities.”
Dulaney, who has been an employee for Pinellas County Utilities for 29 years, said it had been quite some time since a power outage had caused a major problem with the pump stations.
“Usually it’s after a tropical storm has passed through and we lose power – not a mechanical failure,” he said.
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Article published on Monday, June 23, 2008
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