Special Care Taken to Repair Water Leak Near Advanced Light Source
By Lyn Hunter

Soriano digs by hand to reach a busted pipe near the ALS

On Sunday, Jan. 15 around 8 a.m., Plant Maintenance Technician Paul Fleming (Facilities Division) received a call about water leaking near the Advance Light Source. Fleming, along with Chief Engineer Michael Dong and Electrical Maintenance Supervisor Jim Murphy, shut off the water valves and surveyed the situation to assess safety issues and possible impact on underground electrical wiring.

Not wanting to leave the staff in the ALS and adjacent Building 7 without water, or create a safety issue should a fire break out (nearby fire hydrants had to be shut down), fire hoses were hooked up to bring water to the area.

Once this stopgap measure was in place (completed about 10 p.m. that evening), the work of finding the leak began. Borrowing a special x-ray machine from Livermore Lab, the problem was pinpointed, just eight feet from the ALS.

Unfortunately, concrete pavers covered the area. Normally, jackhammers or other machinery would have been used to break through to the ground, but that was not an option in this situation.

"It had to be done by hand because any vibration would have upset the beamlines in the ALS," Bob Berninzoni, Facilities Superintendent, explains. "We wanted to try and fix this without any interruption to the research taking place there."

Lab laborer Miguel Penna happened to be familiar with the kind of pavers that had been installed and knew how to remove them by hand. He and fellow laborer Jose Soriano began prying up the pavers one by one, nearly 500 in all. Then the arduous task of digging commenced. It took nearly three days, using shovels to break through the compacted earth, to reach the pipe.  

Eventually, the leak was located. The pipe, which is about 20 years old, had been back-filled improperly when originally installed, says Dong. This allowed a rock lodged near the pipe to rub against it, eventually creating a hole, about two inches across.

The pipe was patched, and will be replaced within the next two years. The lines were flushed and the water was tested. No contamination was found. The holes are being filled and work should be completed by next week.

"All through this ordeal, the ALS kept humming and never missed a beat, and credit goes to the staff who worked on this, " says Berninzoni. "There was no damage nor any downtime."

In addition to Paul Fleming, Michael Dong, Jim Murphy, Migel Penna and Jose Soriano, Berninzoni would also like to recognize Dennis Nielson the Technical Service Manager, Larry Begley and the PMT staff. The expertise of Butch Holeman, and the plumbing staff, and Iraj Javandel, with EH&S Site Restoration, for their help.