08/15/2024
Built to Weather Any Storm: One of the Largest Drainage Pumping Stations in the World
“After the 11 Pentair Pumps were installed at the West Closure Complex, Hurricane Ida hit the area in 2021. The system worked as it should, and we did not see anywhere near the same damage as Hurricane Katrina, despite the intensity of the storm.” - Nick Cali, Regional Director of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority.
After Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers moved quickly to fast-track a multi-billion-dollar infrastructure project to shore up the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection System – a project that had been stalled for decades. As part of this effort, Pentair was commissioned to build 11 massive pumps to be installed along the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) just south of New Orleans.
To learn more about how Pentair Flow flood control pumps are helping protect people and property from devastating storms, check out the video.
The new pumps were built in Pentair’s Kansas City facility and delivered in May 2011. Pentair did more than just supply pumps, however. Given the extraordinary circumstances and requirements of the project, the Pentair team that designed and moved the 11 pumps stayed in Louisiana until they were up and running. According to Steve King, a Field Service Engineer with Pentair, “We had 18 weeks to finish the project working with contractors, subcontractors, and the Army Corps of Engineers all working day in and day out, without a day off, until we had the pumps up and running.”
The Pentair team maintains and monitors the pumps today. As Jim Miller, Southeast Regional Sales Manager, explains, “As the pumps age, we handle parts requirements or replacements. Our engineers help to conduct inspections, do vibration analysis, and help instruct on preventive maintenance.”
Today, the centerpiece of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection System is the $1 billion West Closure Complex which operates the Pentair pumps and is linked to a system of 80 miles of levees. The massive facility is one of the world’s largest surge barrier systems of its kind and includes one of the largest drainage pump stations in the world, spanning Intracoastal Waterway just below the confluence of the Algiers Canal and Harvey Canal. The pumps remove stormwater from a West Bank basin spanning three parishes that drain into the canals.
Over the past decade, Pentair Flow equipment has played a pivotal role in keeping the people and property of the west bank of the Mississippi River safe, even in the face of storms as powerful as Hurricane Ida in 2021.
“If Pentair pumps hadn’t been in place during Hurricane Ida, the outcome might have been very different,” Cali explains. “This had to the potential to be a Katrina 2.0 on the west bank of the Mississippi River. It could have put six feet of water in people’s homes, and it would have been an absolute disaster. But, we protect a quarter of a million people, and so I’m very proud to say the system worked exactly as designed.”
