Hammering Water
In my second year as a lifeguard for my local parks district, I was instructed on how to change hair catches and rid the air in the tanks of the pump house. Well, one day I mismatched the order in which to shut the valves off when filling the reservoir, and created what is called a “water hammer,” a burst of air that carries a backwash up through pipes.
I thought it was normal cause the pumphouse had been there since the early ’50s so I didn’t make anything of it. Then I looked out the window—and my blood ran cold. Down the hill by the local library parking lot. The entire place was flooded. The water hammer found a rusted water main below the library parking lot and burst through the pavement.
The maintenance men said it cost the city over $800,000 to fix the main and keep the library from flooding and ruining the books. Thankfully it was an accident and not malicious or else I’d be living in said pump house.