From the Stockroom (Flood 2)

by Tom Geissinger

["The Courier," May 18, 1998, Department of Chemistry MSU]

Largely due to the continuing "flooding" we are experiencing in the SB Stockroom, I have not been able to write in the Courier for some time now. This "flooding" has been going on since the last day of March. Why hasn’t this situation been "taken care of" you ask? The answer is complicated, and I will try to explain it. Right now, I am writing this just to prevent my wet-vacuuming hand, the one that has been wrapped around a vacuum hose for the last six weeks, from becoming permanently curled (deformed) to the diameter of our wet-vac hose. I’ll give you the short version of this, yet another water story, from the Sub-Basement.

Water started appearing in Room B-3, the 4-liter solvent room, on Monday, March 30th. Nothing serious mind you, just a small puddle under a pallet of sulfuric acid. By Wednesday, April 1st, the small puddle was now a large puddle straddling three pallets, Sulfuric, Nitric and Hydrochloric. I began to be concerned. We have had some ground water seepage in the past, especially during a wet Spring, but I thought it odd that it was only coming in at one spot. Usually, when the groundwater table is high, the seepage points for the Sub-Basement are high up on the outside wall (South), and it dribbles in slowly, nothing that a mop couldn’t handle. This water seemed to be coming up from the floor!? By Thursday, water started to appear along the outside wall (South) of Room B-2. On Friday, the water was overflowing the section of Room B-3 used to store acids. This area has a "speed bump", or ridge, which is supposed to be a containment area, should any acids spill where they are stored. This containment area measures 9 x 15 feet, and the water contained there was about two inches deep before it over-ran the speed bump. From wet vacuuming this area, I can tell you that I vacuumed over 60 gallons of water from this area. And, the water just kept coming. Luckily, I had a ski vacation to Colorado scheduled for all next week and I thought our flooding problem would be solved by time I returned on 13th. Boy, was I foolishly optimistic; vacations will do that to you.

When I came to work on April 13th, the growth of our water problem was exponential. All three stockrooms were flooding to the tune of hundreds of gallons a day. What’s more, we are STILL flooding, and the rate of inundation remains undiminished. Besides my wet-vacuuming about 3 hours of everyday, we also have Physical Plant personnel coming in at night, often twice, to keep the water at bay. Many hours of overtime are being racked-up by custodial services to keep our feet dry in the Sub-Basement.

What exactly has been done solve this problem? Actually a lot, but nothing to really diminish the Invasion of the Water. Why? Because we CANNOT find the source of all this water! And we have looked, sniffed, fluorosceined the water going down drains, crawled down manholes to monitor drains, crouched in "wind-tunnels" down under our building, and run innumerable samples of our flood water through the UV Spectrometer comparing it to drain water, chilled water, ground water, drinking water, sewage water, you-name-it, and nothing compares to our flood water? We have no idea how long the cycle is from when the water escapes it’s original pipe (broken) or shale bed (disrupted) and makes it’s way under our building and through our SB floor. Does this cycle take one-day, a week, or weeks? No one knows!

Meanwhile, Physical Plant has taken bids from construction contractors to alleviate the flooding by digging drainage trenches/beds at the water incursion points in the Stockroom and run the water into existing drain pipes. However, this is no small disruption to the normal functions of the stockroom. Shelving units and all that is on them must be temporarily removed so that the cement-cutting machines can furrow out troughs for drainage. Sometime shortly after Memorial Day, it will temporarily be more difficult for you to get some office supplies, for at least a week, while these shelves are torn down. Try to get all the office supplies you will need for two weeks prior to Memorial Day. One of the Physical Plant guys thought, "The Chemistry building needed a Barium enema just like any sick patient. Then just x-ray building for the leaks." "The question is," he speculated, "where do we stick the nozzle in?" I told him I would have to consult our graduate students on that matter, "They’ll know where the biggest pucker-hole is, and they may even want to help insert the nozzle."

Kidding aside, the contractors have dug one trench, in room B-3, with shale drainage leading to a regular drain. During the dig to the floor drain they noticed three separate streams of water emerging from three separate directions toward the drain. Stranger yet, one stream of water registered a temperature of 86 degrees Fahrenheit, (30 C.), and the other streams logged in at 66 degrees Fahrenheit, (18.9 C.). Inquiring minds want to know where this heated water is coming from. Is all the water coming from one heated source and just finding it’s way via different routes under our building and through our SB floor? Or are there multiple leak points? Where IS the source of this leak: a broken pipe leading to or from the Chemistry Building; a disrupted shale drainage bed; our neighbor, the Cyclotron uses copious amounts of water as coolant: are they leaking? Did the new electrical vault installed at the SB level near our back dock area trigger this influx of water?

The water began seeping into the SB Stockroom soon after the completion of our new electrical vault, which incidentally is also receiving a fairly high seepage of water. However, the con-tractors designed this vault for just such a contingency by installing perimeter drainage with sump pumps. Hence, there is no real danger in the electrical vault unless the sump pumps quit.

We need definitive proof of where the leak is before they start digging 30- foot holes in our backyard. Thirty feet is how deep the drainpipes under our floor are, although many of the regular drains in the building are twenty feet deep. For perspective on this, a Physical Plant guy informed me that they recently dug a nine-foot deep hole on campus and had to pay $5000 for just the shoring to keep the hole from caving in. The displaced earth from digging also creates a small mountain of earth. The costs of digging blindly looking for a leak is out of the question.

The questions are: Where are ALL the drains in the building, which dump hot "coolant" water? Has anyone noticed a decrease in hot water pressure? If anyone has any suggestions please feel free to call our Building Engineer, Bill Fritz, X202, our Building Manager, Bob Rasico, X360, or me at X794.

As I write this, the Physical Plant has started to get physical with us and is now ramming a miniature video camera (light attached) where the sun doesn’t shine, our drains that is. As might be expected, they say we are plugged-up at spots, and they need to bring in a roto-rooter for clearer look. They also inform me that the elevator shafts in the Cyclotron Building are beginning to fill with water. The problem grows.

As I type, Thursday, May 14th, they are digging over at the Cyclotron. The temperature of the water filling their elevator shaft is 155° Fahrenheit. They now believe a steam condensate pipe has broken. The keyword here is "believe," but I think they are getting warmer. I always thought our elevators had an inclination toward malice, but the Cyclotron's elevators decided to cook it's occupants. "Two Physicists lightly steamed, please." Whatever you do, do not let our elevators know what is happening next door, they may think it is a good idea. Help our elevators resist carnivorism. We don't need that kind of behavior around this building.