Pollution Engineering - September 2008 - (Page 50)

Mississippi River ﬂoodwaters nearly claimed Missouri’s oldest community in 1993. The high water was held back this time and a Trumbull company had a major role. By STEVEN LONDON, Steven London Assoc. A levee and powerful flood-control pump station that entered service following the devastating 1993 floods helped win the battle to save historic Ste. Genevieve, Mo., during the recent catastrophic floods along the Mississippi River. The quaint village of 4,400 people is located about 64 miles south of St. Louis. It has been victimized by high water ever since French fur traders settled there in 1735. Seven floods had occurred since 1973 at the bend along the Mississippi River before the flood-control improvements. The town was the focus of international attention in 1993 when tens of thousands of volunteers worked valiantly to build an emergency levee to hold back the Mississippi’s record crest of 49.74 feet that year at the Chester, Ill. gage. More than 1.1 million sandbags, 40 tractor-trailer loads of concrete median barriers and 16,000 truckloads of rock went into the 22-ft. high emergency levee that kept damages to approximately $10 million. This year’s flooding was mostly above St. Louis but was nonetheless catastrophic in those areas downriver. The Mississippi River downstream from St. Louis was 12 feet short of the ’93 record but still roiling well above flood stage at Ste. Genevieve. This time, it was another story. The difference came from a $50-million levee and pump station structure armed with three, 660-hp pumps from Flygt, supplied by ITT Water & Wastewater Inc. The infrastructure presented the needed line of defense between the Mississippi River and the village. Completed in 2001, the urban-design levee was engineered for even more than a 500-year flood. The pump station, located 600 feet up from a creek’s confluence with the river, prevented the stream from backing up the half-mile distance into Ste. Genevieve. The computer-controlled station was among the largest of its type in North America. During the recent high water, the four sluice gates shut and the pumps activated to usher whatever water reached the creek basin over the levee and into the river. By early July, nearly half of the total run time for the pump station had accrued since April of this year. 50 Pollution Engineering SEPTEMBER2008 An aerial view of the flood control system just before competition. The pumps were manufactured according to the town’s specific criteria in Sweden, and set in place as the flood-control structure neared completion in 2001. The scope of the project also involved construction of two railroad closure structures and other related improvements. For months following the flood, water receding off the fields inundated by levee breaks upstream caused the Mississippi to rise again. But the residents of Ste. Genevieve had little cause to worry, protected as they were behind a solid line of defense against the largest of America’s rivers. PE Steven London Associations, Lansdale, Pa., is a marketing representative for ITT Water & Wastewater U.S.A, Trumbull, Conn.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pollution Engineering - September 2008

Pollution Engineering - September 2008 Contents The Editor’s Desk Reader Comments EnviroNews PE Events Legal Lookout Environmental Management The Green Files Guest Dialog 500-Year Storm Control How Do You Clean Up 100 Years of Pollution? SPCC: Don’t Wait and See The Next Wave in Air Purification An Invitation to the Windy City Flood Control Infrastructure Saves ‘Green’ Puts a New Spin on Pest Control Instrumentation Products Material Safety and Storage Equipment PE Products Classified Marketplace Advertisers Index State Rules

Pollution Engineering - September 2008

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