It wasn't an ordinary morning for Norfolk Naval Shipyard's (NNSY) emergency management services.

The cold temperatures and snow didn't delay the emergency response, first responders, contractors, production department, and equipment management division, and various Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Mid-Atlantic teams' ability to quickly respond to a possible sewage leak near Gate 15.

NAVFAC received a call from the NNSY Regional Operations Center (ROC) and immediately mobilized various teams to evaluate the scene the morning of Jan. 10. "We were pretty sure we had a leak, we just didn't know exactly where it was," said Utilities and Energy Management Civil Engineer Gene Bricker, NNSY NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic. "Once the leak was excavated and located, we confirmed it was caused by a deteriorating cast iron pipe that had been installed during the 1950's."

Pump Station 508 near Gate 15 is the main hub of where 99% of all sewage flow leaves the base to Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) system.

"Since NNSY sewage system is connected into HRSD, flow continues to come into the shipyard after the base's system has been shut down, which causes a spill," said Bricker.

"The initial spillage was about 300 gallons. About 100 gallons of it ran into the street and into the storm drain," said Mechanical Engineer Cathy Weeks, NNSY NAVFAC Mid-Atlantic Public Works Department Portsmouth. "We cleaned up the street and sidewalk with lime, and gathered sandbags from all over the shipyard to build a wall around the site."

"From an environmental perspective, it could have been a lot worse," explained Weeks. "Many people within the shipyard and NAVFAC cared in so many ways by sacrificing time, resources, and energy to keep the shipyard safe."

"It's important to have a plan for these types of situations. By having a plan, knowing the problem, and knowing the path to take allowed us to start moving forward to get the job done in a timely and efficient manner. It also gave us time to pre-assemble essential parts that would be installed later at the site," said Bricker.

"Once all sections were isolated, it took 12 hours to complete the repair on Jan. 24," explained Bricker. "The process started at 9 a.m. At 9 p.m., we started the pumps back up and returned all of the lines to service. Two new valves were installed at the Race Street connection to isolate our system and stop incoming flow from HRSD in the future."

"The repair was complicated due to where the problem was at the joint in the pipe," said Bricker. "When a situation like this happens, our goal is to keep service going. We can't say, 'you can't use your facilities, wash your hands, or prepare food.' We had up to 22 pumper trucks collecting sewage around the clock. "With up to 20,000 people coming through the gate every day, we do whatever we can to keep things going. That is our number one priority."

There were a lot of on-scene and behind-the-scene team efforts to the two-week, 2.8-million-dollar repair. "I know two weeks sounds like a lot of time, but there was a whole lot accomplished in two weeks to return that line to service," explained Bricker. "It went well; it really went well considering the timeframe and no real disruption of service anywhere in the shipyard, except the pedestrian path at Gate 15 was temporarily rerouted."

"The true heroes of this story are the contractors. They arrived within four hours with trucks ready to begin hauling sewage off-site," said Weeks. "They worked with a passion to support our needs through the snow and rain, and stood outside watching the pumping operations day and night for two weeks."

Due to its age, the line is being restored in phases to prevent future failures. The first phase was completed at station 508 this year. The second phase will replace the lines out to Bldg. 491 near Gate 15 during Fiscal Year 17/18. In 2020, the third phase will continue rehabilitation of the force main toward Race Street.

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