Monday, November 24, 2008

Diving: New York City Water Nightmare is an Underwater Gadget Lover's Dream

Diving: New York City Water Nightmare is an Underwater Gadget Lover's Dream: "A giant aquifer, completed in 1944, is leaking up to 36 million gallons of water a day. For New Yorkers, who on average use 150 gallons per day, that's unacceptable. Trouble is, fixing the leak involves some extreme diving, 14 tractor trailer trucks worth of gear, and a 24-foot room that divers will live in for a month, breathing helium.

The five-year, $22 million diving project is underway today, and that means six lucky divers are presently 700 feet beneath the NYC surface, trying to find where one of the bigger leaks is hiding. They're living in a 24-foot pressurized tube that includes 'showers, a television and a Nerf basketball hoop,' and they're breathing air that is 97.5% helium and 2.5% oxygen."

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This is a flippant story about a pretty amazing repair project.

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