September 11, 2024 |
Photo – Medicine Bow Town Council – By Matt Copeland Bigfoot99
A sensor failure caused a pump to burn out at the Medicine Bow water treatment plant. A backup pump is keeping the town’s water supply flowing while costly repairs are being done.
During Monday’s Medicine Bow town council meeting, Mayor Justin George explained that the water treatment plant pump burned out. Mayor George said repairing the damage will not be cheap.
Mayor George said a module on one of the pumps failed, causing the water treatment plant’s supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, system to mistakenly show that the water tank was full. The SCADA system failed to alert the town, and the pump ran until it burned out.
Mayor George said a backup pump is keeping the water treatment plant fully operational until a new pump is installed.
Councilman Lee Cook asked why the alarm did not alert the town to the failure. Mayor George explained that the sensor responsible for sending the alert did not operate as intended. Councilman Cook questioned the value of the sensor if it failed at its sole purpose.
Mayor George also said the pumps lack any form of temperature monitoring sensors, which contributed to the failure.
Public Works Director Brian Lashley said a new pump will cost more than $5,000 and take at least nine weeks to arrive. Lashley said he discovered two nonfunctional pumps in the town’s inventory. The public works director said he can have the two older pumps repaired by a shop in Casper for roughly the same price as a new pump.
Lashley said one refurbished pump will replace the one that burned out. The other pump will be kept in reserve.
Councilman Cook asked Lashley if the new pumps will come equipped with temperature sensors. The public works director said the system already monitors the temperature. Lashley said he is unhappy that the SCADA system failed to alert the town about the malfunction.
Lashley explained that the pump burned out due to a computer system failure and not because of a shortage of water.
After the pumps are refurbished in Casper, the public works director said he’ll meet with the town’s SCADA system provider to discuss the failure and attempt to get reimbursed for the repairs.
Until then, Medicine Bow public works crews must climb the water storage tanks and physically measure the water contained inside.
