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OlGreggMare t1_j89ofx4 wrote

They don't call it the dry wall

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Don_key_Hotea t1_j89hv4x wrote

Shokoe Bottom is essentially a bowl between Navy Hill and Church Hill. Water runs downhill and collects into larger and larger puddles. The flood wall is meant to keep the overflowing James River from flooding into the bowl not to prevent the collection of water from the run off.

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sleevieb t1_j8ab0n3 wrote

Yes but why is water pouring out of this tower of this structure?

Also what is this structure? A hate house? Pump house? Milf island embassy?

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freetimerva t1_j8agowp wrote

Combined sewage overflow I'd think. Looks like a lift station, so that's doodoo.

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kneel_yung t1_j8bpsbs wrote

yeah but when there's enough rain for a CSO, what you're seeing is like 0.1% or less doo doo by volume (ddbv) compared to the insane amount of water contained in a rainstorm.

a 1-inch rainstorm deposits a little over a billion gallons of water, just in the city limits (27,154 gallons per acre, 40,040 acres in the CoR). The entire flow of the james river is 1.8 billion gallons per day.

So a 1 inch rainstorm dumps the equivalent of the entire james river's flow for about 12-13 hours into our sewer system.

The state of virginia estimates the average person generates 75 gallons of sewage every day. With a population of 226,000, lets use the number 100 gallons per person per day. That comes to 22 million gallons of water. 22 million into 1 billion is about 2.2 percent.

And that 100 gallon figure includes grey and black water. So the vast majority of it is going to be from your shower, dishwasher, washing machine, and sink. Unless you personally produce 100 gallons of feces in a day, I think its safe to say the average person produces less than 1 gallon of actual waste in a day.

Which brings the final number to about 226,000 gallons of actual doodoo out of 1 billion gallons of rainwater = not all that much doodoo, really.

I mean I definitely wouldn't drink it, but I bet it actually is cleaner than the water that's already in the james (and has accumulated runoff from farms upstream).

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Tstewmoneybags99 t1_j8bfbd9 wrote

It’s a pump station that is probably overflow because they didn’t close the flood gates it’s purpose is to pump water out once you close the flood walls because the drainage won’t flow normally out of this area. The water is probably overflow and from the pump station as the the pump station is likely on a minimum run capacity.

Basically cause the walls aren’t closed it’s not really doing the job it’s intended to do so they are just letting it roll.

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OddWelcome2502 t1_j89hd92 wrote

But the water rushing off the top of that tower! Looks wild

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lunar_unit t1_j89otni wrote

Spooky reminder of when Shockoe flooded because the flood wall was closed and the pumps failed causing the Shockoe bowl to fill with 9ft of water.

Edit:. Here's an account of the flooding on that day, and how/why it happened:

https://richmond.com/news/local/why-richmond-why-officials-say-floodwall-didnt-fail-during-gaston-in-2004/article_7bcd6202-7ae8-5116-891b-a36c86df4db4.html

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Danger-Moose t1_j89y8nu wrote

And the pumps failed because the generators for the pumps were... Flooded. It's similar to how so many complexes had generators in flooded basements in Sandy up north.

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Jsprdn t1_j8agta0 wrote

I lived in NYC then and had to deliver emergency generators to Manhattan hospitals during that shitstorm. Problem was their generators were up on the roof but the fuel tanks were in the basements..

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Ese_Americano t1_j8a6sd5 wrote

Would the fix be to have generators above the future-potential floodwaters, or, generators at multiple levels of a pump house?

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dreww4546 t1_j8an7wu wrote

The problem wasn't that generators failed, it was that this has been a flood zone since richmonds first days as a city.

Rain came down at an unprecedented rate during gaston and there was no where for the water to drain too.

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Ese_Americano t1_j8bpz1k wrote

Got it. Any way you can you answer my question?

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dreww4546 t1_j8bubeo wrote

After Gaston, the army Corp of engineers pretty much said there is no pump system that would be able to manage a foot of rain being funneled down into the bottom in an hour. But politics being what they are more money was spent

I really don't know what is happening in the pic. I just wanted to chime in on Gaston flooding.

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Ese_Americano t1_j8fgwh4 wrote

Thank you for this response. I greatly appreciate it! Great insight. RVA is as RVA DOES!

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stayintall t1_j8ao574 wrote

I lived across from what was then Tiki Bobs and remember Gaston vividly. I worked up around 14th and was walking back to 18th right as the farmers market was starting to flood. Was probably about 6” high at that point. A couple of us got a few sixers and rode out the storm from 18th and Franklin and at one point saw an 18 wheeler floating down 17th. The water rose all the way up to 18th. We rescued a dog off the top of a car somewhere in there as well. Was a wild time.

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trlblaze t1_j8ciyd8 wrote

I rode that storm out on the 4th floor of my friend's apartment at 21st and Cary. Water was rising up to the driver's windows of cars parked down by 18th and I vividly remember the bottoms up dumpster floating down the street.

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RCBilldoz t1_j8cwg0t wrote

The flood wall was not closed. We got 10 inches of rain in less than 6 hours. Our civil war era drainage didn’t help.

It was not riverine flooding, there was no water coming down river. It takes about 24-30 hours to close. There was no prediction of river flooding with Gaston.

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lunar_unit t1_j8dhmiq wrote

You're right. Edited my comment and added a link to how it all went down.

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kneel_yung t1_j8d8zhq wrote

Gaston flooded because shockoe creek flooded due to the rain.

The flood wall is not designed to protect richmond from shockoe creek flooding, only from the river. Shockoe creek is on the other side of the flood wall. So the flood wall couldn't have done anything in that situation. In fact its mere existence made it worse because it trapped all the water from trying to get into the river and instead held it in shockoe.

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lunar_unit t1_j8ddbye wrote

Gillies creek is two miles from shockoe, way over in Fulton, flowing to the river from Eastern Henrico. It had nothing to do with flooding in Shockoe. Over 12" of heavy rain in 8 hours is what caused the flooding.

Here's an account of how it went down:

https://richmond.com/news/local/why-richmond-why-officials-say-floodwall-didnt-fail-during-gaston-in-2004/article_7bcd6202-7ae8-5116-891b-a36c86df4db4.html

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kneel_yung t1_j8dl6k8 wrote

My b I meant shockoe creek. There's like 6 creeks right there.

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WearyMangoFish t1_j89h5hc wrote

Flooding

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JakeTheDog424 t1_j89qm0q wrote

Definitely flooding

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LetgomyEkko t1_j89y5jb wrote

I’m no expert, but seems to be quite unquestionably, flooding.

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J-Colio t1_j89jvhg wrote

That's not good.

I think that's a lift station...

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vamatt t1_j8abkz6 wrote

Looks like it. If so that may actually be sewage.

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Plaski t1_j89jqgm wrote

I've always thought that was a pump station for the wall, perhaps they are testing or flushing the system.

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jbarrish t1_j8a2p3h wrote

Pretty sure it's a lift station to transfer waste water to the treatment plant across the river or the giant holding tank island nearby. Sewer, not flood wall related.

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App1eEater t1_j8a8wig wrote

Combined storm and sewer, right?

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jbarrish t1_j8aajor wrote

Correct. It's fine until the system can't handle flow and then it basically goes straight to the James

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App1eEater t1_j8ara7m wrote

I'm guessing this pumping station is malfunctioning and the over flow is designed as a visual indicator that shit's not working right

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informativebitching t1_j8acr3h wrote

I pity operators that have to deal with actual combined influent (as opposed to just plain old I/I.

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Mr_Boneman t1_j8a0jeq wrote

From time to time, shockoe creek returns from the depths of the sewer line it was turned into.

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dreww4546 t1_j89stca wrote

Shockhoe bottom cleansing itself? Think Noah but on a smaller more localized scale

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WhereDoesItSayNotTo t1_j8bn39m wrote

Does that mean 6 more weeks of small craft advisories in Richmond?

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absen7 t1_j8aee84 wrote

It's definitely flooding. The building is a wastewater pump station, and the city's retention basin is close by. I'm not sure if this pumps into that or to the wastewater plant, more than likely wastewater. My assumption is the system is full, water is flowing straight downhill into shockoe and what we see here is by design to stop damage. Or something broke, and it's flooding. Flooding is the end result either way. Hah

I'd love to hear from someone that worked/works wastewater.

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ifitsnotbroke t1_j8fsnqe wrote

There are large hydraulic cylinders that open the gates to the basin, the cylinders need replacing/repairing, and the gate is stuck.

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appalachie t1_j8b6xcz wrote

Looks like it’s flooding

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big65 t1_j8a8wva wrote

Flooding

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fishmapper t1_j8bbbt0 wrote

Paging u/rvah2o

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rvah2o t1_j8e1kza wrote

on it! Dock Street Pump Station is in need of some TLC and maintenance and our team is working on a fix now!

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adho123456 t1_j8acxf3 wrote

The “bathtub” is unable to drain

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librab103 t1_j8bf7zp wrote

flooding, overflow sewage water?

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Skatejay t1_j8anz1e wrote

Well it’s the end of the world of course …

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anemone_rue t1_j8d6xsd wrote

It's poo water. Either too much water flooded the sewer system because the pipes are not in good condition or it got jammed up do to wet wipes.

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AdThat6254 t1_j8die2f wrote

The infamous flood wall puddle. Ask bottoms up about it.

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