Staten Islanders have been stunned by how much the water levels at Silver Lake Park reservoir have dropped in recent months.
While drought conditions are being blamed for the current loss of water, there was a time years ago when a mysterious leak caused a massive, years-long leak at Silver Lake that took more than $100,000 and a diving company to solve.
One worker dubbed the complicated underwater repair job “The Temple of Doom.”
The fix was the end result of a massive, nine-month effort by the city Department of Environmental Protection, the Bureau of Water Supply, a number of private contractors and a diving company to identify the source of the leak and correct it.
That fix took eight months longer than the DEP had originally planned on.
“It has been rather unique,” Edward C. Scheader, deputy director of the BWS, said at the time.
He added, “Everyone though it was simple.”
Half its depth
In June 1982, the BWS and the city Parks Department discovered that Silver Lake reservoir had lost nearly a foot of water each month over the previous year.
Depleted water levels are seen at Silver Lake Park reservoir in 1983.Frank J. Johns | Staten Island Advance
The 475-million-gallon reservoir was converted from a lake in 1917 and served as the borough’s water supply until 1971.
The reservoir at one point had drained down to 20 feet, half its depth, causing concern among city officials, Community Board 1 members and park users.
Up until January of 1981, when a drought emergency was declared in the city, the BWS had stabilized the reservoir’s water levels by pumping an estimated 1 million gallons of water daily into Silver Lake.
That water came from reservoirs upstate and was pumped into two, 50-million-gallon water storage tanks which had been placed at the bottom of the reservoir in 1971.
Water pours into Silver Lake as city replenishes reservoir after leak led to serious drop in water levels.Barry G. Schwartz | Staten Island Advance
But even with that replenishment, the city needed to find the source of the leak and fix it.
Divers down
Divers from United Commercial Diving Inc. in Graniteville were hired in July of 1982 to investigate the reservoir.
The divers eventually discovered a “substantial leak” of unknown origin in the lake’s north basin, leading into a sewer pipe.
The divers had to crawl 45 feet down the damaged sewer pipe and then 315 feet toward the center of the reservoir’s north basin.
There they found a circular crack 40 inches long and a quarter-inch wide. Water equal to that coming from an open fire hydrant was leaking from the reservoir and into the sewer system.
The leak was under very high pressure and was also compared to the water coming out of a showerhead.
“It came in at a terrific rate,” said Scheader at the time.
A leak caused water in Silver Lake reservoir to drop to half its normal levels in the early 1980s.Staten Island Advance photo
A temporary fix made with lead wool and wedges stopped about 75% of the leak.
But that fix and the subsequent final repair weren’t easy.
‘A little scary’
To effect repairs, Michael Gugleotti had to work in a dark area that was just 28 to 32 inches wide, dragging repair tools as well as a video camera with him, which was used to document the repair.
“I’ve been in pipes before under the ocean,” Gugleotti said, but he admitted the conditions below the surface of Silver Lake were “a little scary.”
“It’s an unusual project,” said George Prepap, a project supervisor with contractor Spearin Preston and Burrows of Mariners Harbor, which was hired to fix the leak.
Prepap said, “It’s a bad place to work. You’ve got to crawl in. It’s a messy kind of job.”
Ernest Cavagnaro, a BWS emergency engineer, called the nine-month repair job, “The Temple of Doom” because everybody “was working in such a confined area” and no repair seemed to work at first.
A fix that involved inserting a flexible plastic pipe into the damaged pipe was not successful.
Also unsuccessful was a fix that involved pumping grout behind custom-made steel plates around the damaged pipe.
‘Most valued assets’
Miller Pipeline Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., eventually fixed the leak with their “Week-O-Seal” product, an internal rubber sleeve originally developed to repair gasoline pipes and water mains.
The sleeve, held in place with stainless steel retaining bands, did the job in combination with the grout and other methods that had already been tried.
The leak was declared fixed in June of 1985. The final cost for the repair came to $110,000.
It was estimated that a leak caused water at Silver Lake reservoir to drop a foot a month in the early 1980s.Staten Island Advance photo
Officials and engineers who installed the water tanks in 1971 concluded that the leak had been draining Silver Lake ever since the water storage tanks were put in.
Rosemary Palladino, district manager of Board 1, was glad to see the fix.
The community board had successfully fought an earlier effort that would have drained the entire reservoir for economic, conservation and safety reasons.
“Silver Lake is probably one of our district’s most valued assets,” she said.