{"id":119845,"date":"2026-02-02T11:49:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/119845\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T11:49:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T11:49:24","slug":"temple-of-doom-crews-in-scary-conditions-fix-underwater-leak-at-silver-lake-reservoir-in-1980s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/119845\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Temple of Doom\u2019: Crews in \u2018scary,\u2019 conditions fix underwater leak at Silver Lake reservoir in 1980s"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staten Islanders have been stunned by how much the water levels at Silver Lake Park reservoir have dropped<\/a> in recent months. <\/p>\n

While drought conditions are being blamed for the current loss of water, <\/a>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. <\/p>\n

One worker dubbed the complicated underwater repair job \u201cThe Temple of Doom.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

That fix took eight months longer than the DEP had originally planned on. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been rather unique,\u201d Edward C. Scheader, deputy director of the BWS, said at the time. <\/p>\n

He added, \u201cEveryone though it was simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Half its depth<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"1980sDepleted water levels are seen at Silver Lake Park reservoir in 1983.Frank J. Johns | Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n

The 475-million-gallon reservoir was converted from a lake in 1917 and served as the borough\u2019s water supply until 1971. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Up until January of 1981, when a drought emergency was declared in the city, the BWS had stabilized the reservoir\u2019s water levels by pumping an estimated 1 million gallons of water daily into Silver Lake. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\"1980sWater pours into Silver Lake as city replenishes reservoir after leak led to serious drop in water levels.Barry G. Schwartz | Staten Island Advance<\/p>\n

But even with that replenishment, the city needed to find the source of the leak and fix it. <\/p>\n

Divers down<\/p>\n

Divers from United Commercial Diving Inc. in Graniteville were hired in July of 1982 to investigate the reservoir. <\/p>\n

The divers eventually discovered a \u201csubstantial leak\u201d of unknown origin in the lake\u2019s north basin, leading into a sewer pipe. <\/p>\n

The divers had to crawl 45 feet down the damaged sewer pipe and then 315 feet toward the center of the reservoir\u2019s north basin. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The leak was under very high pressure and was also compared to the water coming out of a showerhead. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt came in at a terrific rate,\u201d said Scheader at the time. <\/p>\n

\"1980sA leak caused water in Silver Lake reservoir to drop to half its normal levels in the early 1980s.Staten Island Advance photo<\/p>\n

A temporary fix made with lead wool and wedges stopped about 75% of the leak. <\/p>\n

But that fix and the subsequent final repair weren\u2019t easy. <\/p>\n

\u2018A little scary\u2019<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in pipes before under the ocean,\u201d Gugleotti said, but he admitted the conditions below the surface of Silver Lake were \u201ca little scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an unusual project,\u201d said George Prepap, a project supervisor with contractor Spearin Preston and Burrows of Mariners Harbor, which was hired to fix the leak. <\/p>\n

Prepap said, \u201cIt\u2019s a bad place to work. You\u2019ve got to crawl in. It\u2019s a messy kind of job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ernest Cavagnaro, a BWS emergency engineer, called the nine-month repair job, \u201cThe Temple of Doom\u201d because everybody \u201cwas working in such a confined area\u201d and no repair seemed to work at first. <\/p>\n

A fix that involved inserting a flexible plastic pipe into the damaged pipe was not successful.<\/p>\n

Also unsuccessful was a fix that involved pumping grout behind custom-made steel plates around the damaged pipe. <\/p>\n

\u2018Most valued assets\u2019<\/p>\n

Miller Pipeline Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., eventually fixed the leak with their \u201cWeek-O-Seal\u201d product, an internal rubber sleeve originally developed to repair gasoline pipes and water mains. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

The leak was declared fixed in June of 1985. The final cost for the repair came to $110,000.<\/p>\n

\"1980sIt 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<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Rosemary Palladino, district manager of Board 1, was glad to see the fix. <\/p>\n

The community board had successfully fought an earlier effort that would have drained the entire reservoir for economic, conservation and safety reasons. <\/p>\n

\u201cSilver Lake is probably one of our district\u2019s most valued assets,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staten Islanders have been stunned by how much the water levels at Silver Lake Park reservoir have dropped…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-119845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}