Not many houses in Halifax have a secret staircase that descends four stories into a large concrete cavern.
But walking into the unassuming brown house on Duffus Street, it’s clear that this is no ordinary house.
The building is owned by Halifax Water and is used to hide the entrance to a tunnel that goes down to a pumping station hidden under Barrington Street.
“It was designed to fit into the neighborhood so it wasn’t so intrusive or ugly,” said Halifax Water spokesman Jake Fulton.
The entrance to the Duffus Street pumping station is in a house owned by Halifax Water, designed to make the facility more visually pleasing to the neighbourhood. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
In this underground space, three Halifax water pumps have failed in the past two months. This has prompted warnings about swimming in the harbor and requests for residents to limit how often toilets are flushed.
Elevator for waste water
The underground pumping station uses powerful and complicated equipment to perform a simple task: to lift sewage.
Everything that is flushed down the toilet, emptied from bathtubs or emptied from washing machines, flows down through pipes to treatment facilities. But along the way, those gravity-fed pipes end up below the level of the destination facility, Fulton said.
That’s why the city has pumping stations.
The Duffus Street facility, and dozens more like it, collects wastewater in a giant basin. Water flows from Larry Uteck, Clayton Park, Fairview and the northern half of the peninsula to the Duffus Street Pumping Station.
Halifax Water spokesman Jake Fulton standing at the Duffus Street pumping station. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
“Here a pump raises it to another point in the system, so it can flow by gravity into the wastewater treatment facility,” Fulton said.
“Series of Unfortunate Events”
Typically, the facility has two pumps installed to move the wastewater through three large pipes. Two bombs, in case one fails.
One did so at the end of June, leaving only the backup pump to move sewage. On July 19, the backup also failed.
Pipes are used to transport wastewater from the basin below to a higher point where it flows downhill to the upper water street treatment plant. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
“We worked as quickly as we could to find an alternative bomb,” Fulton said. “On July 22 we had the system up and running with a replacement pump.
“So this replacement also failed.”
This meant untreated but filtered sewage flowed into Halifax Harbour.
“It’s been a series of unfortunate events with pumps here at the Duffus Street Pumping Station,” Fulton said.
Detection of waste water
With the pump failures, the sewage and rainwater collection at the pump station had nowhere to go.
The only option was to send it to the port.
“So the wastewater comes out of the facility here, it goes through a screen process that removes any solid waste, but it still gets any bacteria in the harbor,” Fulton said.
Sewage from houses and storm water flowing from the streets collects in a basin at the Duffus Street Pumping Station. It is normally pumped through the standpipes, but after recent pump failures, it has been screened before it flows into the port. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
This could be a health risk, which is why Halifax Water is warning residents about using the port.
“We do not advise anyone to use the harbor for recreational purposes and to avoid contact with the harbor if possible,” Fulton said.
He also reminded residents who have their sewage down Duffus Street to try to limit the amount of times they are flushing the toilets.
To reduce the potential environmental impact during this repair, Halifax Water is asking customers in the areas shown on the attached map to reduce the amount of water they are flushing down their drains. For more information, visit pic.twitter.com/S26Q7BdpLg
—@HalifaxWater
The solution is on the way
As of Tuesday evening, a crew was working to prepare another 300-horsepower industrial pump to be installed at the Duffus Street location.
The main problem with moving, installing and transporting these pumps? its size
“We have to run the pump about 20 meters down here,” Fulton said, pointing to a pit that extends from the surface to the upper main floor of the sewage basin.
One of the heavy-duty winches used to maneuver huge water pumps through the facility and into the sewage basin below. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
Even once the pump arrives, it’s a process to install it. Measuring about two meters tall, “it will barely fit down the hall,” Fulton said.
“It’s certainly not an easy job, but we’re working on it,” he said. “Everyone involved is doing everything they can to get the system back to normal.”
More repairs on Wednesday
So-called flushable wipes cannot be washed and belong in the trash, Halifax Water said. Public service worked to clear a bomb Wednesday that was filled with rags and wipes. (Halifax Water)
Emergency repairs were completed by Tuesday night, but the system quickly overflowed again “and clogged with rags and wipes.” In a news release Wednesday, Halifax Water said crews were working to clear the pump.
Authorities have renewed their calls for residents to be careful what they flush down the toilet and say they will now work to develop a plan to deal with this latest pump failure.
We continue to ask customers in the affected areas to reduce the amount of water they are flushing and pouring down their drains. This will help minimize the amount of waste water released into the environment. For more information, visit pic.twitter.com/EERXSS3ZE7
—@HalifaxWater