Giant pumps Tone up for future water fight

11 April 2007

Environment Agency field officers have trialled two mobile pumps capable of discharging more than 3M litres of flood water an hour.
The Dutch-designed pumps, weighing almost half a ton each, were tested at Curry Moor Pumping Station, near Taunton, following several days of heavy rain across the Somerset region.
John Rowlands, of the Environment Agency’s asset system management team, South West Region, said: ‘We have an important role to play in reducing the likelihood of flooding and these huge pumps, part of a consignment of four delivered to us in September, can be transported anywhere in the country at short notice to alleviate flood risk.’ During the trial, the new equipment was used to pump flood water back into the River Tone. Under natural conditions, flood water drains back into waterways once river levels drop, but ancient embankments block this process at Curry Moor. The protected wetland can store up to 10Mm3 of flood water for up to two weeks before rare flora and fauna starts to suffer from being completely submerged. Over a five-day period, the new machinery pumped out the equivalent of an Olympic-size swimming pool every 60 minutes.

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