Pay me now, or pay me later.

Last year we began finding items in one of the pump station's wet well (Never a Dull Moment), such as plastic bags and even fish.  The question of how these items were getting in was answered this past week when the station's intake screen was inspected.

Jeff Lenko preps for his dive.

The intake pipe goes out 60' from the pump station into the lake, and the screen is attached to the end of the pipe.  Here is an example of what a pump station intake should look like at time of installation.

Suffice it to say that what Jeff found in our lake, no longer looks anything like this.  While part of the intake was made of stainless steel, most of the box was not, and has developed gaping holes after 25 years.  These holes allow anything from trash to turtles to enter the pump station.

There's certainly a lesson to be learned from this.  Had the original intake screen box been made completely from stainless steel, the upfront cost would certainly have been higher.  However, we also might not be looking at the cost of replacing the screen now, and the involved process to replace it.

With few other options, we will now need to have a new box fabricated and installed this winter.  This can likely be done without draining the lake, but will require at least two people to get the job done.