Selwood Pumps to the rescue in Yorkshire

Selwood equipment used to deal with two major flooding incidents

The floods in Yorkshire have kept Selwood busy dealing with two major incidents, ensuring staff were denied their sleep.

Not only were Selwood asked to help in the repair of a dam that received so much national publicity, but at the same time had to deploy pumps to a flooded dry well station at a sewage treatment works.

Following the recent constant heavy rain, Selwood’s Leeds branch manager Richard Sykes received a call from Yorkshire Water at 4.00am to respond to an emergency at Blackburn Meadow STW in Sheffield. The rivers that converge on Sheffield had burst their banks and filled the site with 5ft of water that had consequently stopped the pumps in the pumping system as all the electrics had been submerged.

Selwood, sole suppliers to Yorkshire Water and their contract partners for pumps and ancillary equipment, had to supply the equipment to get the station back in service.

Initially two Selwood D200 8in SuperSilent pumps and a Flygt submersible pump were delivered to site within a couple of hours to get the dry well pumped out allowing Yorkshire Water to assess the damage.

Since then a steady stream of pumps were delivered to site including five Selwood 12in S300 SuperSilent units and eight 12in submersible pumps. Selwood’s Rotherham branch also supplied the site with a telehandler and six lighting towers.

Whilst all this was going on, the Leeds branch received another call around 11.00am from civil engineering contractors, JN Bentley, who had just been given the contract to stabilize one of the dams at Ulley Reservoir and would require pumps to lower the water level to reduce the pressure against the dam and allow the M1 to be reopened and avert the danger to the village below.

Following a site meeting with Bentleys, two Selwood 12in S300 SuperSilent pumps and 200m of hose were delivered to site that afternoon, craned into place and, once connected, pumping began at around 6.00pm. The Selwood pumps, helped by 11 hydraulic pump sets being used by fire brigades from nine different fire authorities, meant that the reservoir level was reducing by 20mm per hour by midnight.

Selwood arranged for floating pontoons, four 12in submersible pumps, generators and 200m of additional hose to be delivered throughout the remainder of the evening. These were delivered to a different part of the reservoir where access was extremely difficult and space was at a premium. Through good co-operation and teamwork from all parties involved, the equipment was finally installed and pumping fully by 05.45am the next morning.