Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 25, 1994 TAG: 9402250128
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The pumps were turned on for three or four hours Saturday and were opened again throughout the week.
It was a comparatively small test, with about 18 million gallons of water pumped through the dam Saturday, when the five 800-horsepower motors were activated for the first time. Men and dump trucks stood on ground that will be under hundreds of millions of gallons of water in about six months, said Cliff Craig, director of utilities for Roanoke County.
"There were a few bugs, but we were pumping water - as far as we're concerned, quite satisfactorily," Craig told the Board of Supervisors at its meeting Tuesday night.
The pumps will be turned on continuously for another test, then stopped after a week and taken apart for inspection before they're transferred from the contractor to the county.
"We'll be monitoring the water in the reservoir to make sure we aren't losing any," Craig said.
The weeklong test of the pumps will begin with a March 5 ceremony for supervisors and staff to "officially" turn on the pumps at the $73 million reservoir. The reservoir, dam and water treatment plant being built are expected to serve the county's water needs for 50 years.
Craig said, on average, 56 million gallons a day will be pumped into the reservoir when water levels in the river permit. The county uses about 6 million gallons a day.
The construction at Spring Hollow is winding down, Craig said, with the contractor finishing the checkout stage. Construction at the treatment center will be starting soon.
by CNB