Monrovia Water Plant

The is the main building of the Monrovia water plant. It's about 60k out of town. The ship's engineering group has helping them from time to time. During the war, much of the plant was stripped and looted. Today their main problems are lack of trained and experienced employees. Over riding the low oil pressure engine shut down system doesn't fix the problem...

The plant uses the fresh water from the St. Paul river.

In this building are two generators that power the electric motors which draw the water from the river. The brown tank is the main fuel tank. As you can see they've had some fuel spills.

This is the work shop.

Spare parts shelf. Most of the parts have been salvaged from previous engines.

Some of the water pumps leak.

There are three diesel engines that drive the main pumps. These pumps move the water down a 3 foot water main to the city.

This chemical is used help water impurities clump together so that they settle out of the water.

From Wikipedia:

Aluminium Sulfate is used in water purification and as a mordant in dyeing and printing textiles. In water purification, it causes impurities to coagulate which are removed as the particulate settles to the bottom of the container or more easily filtered. This process is called coagulation or flocculation.

The reason Dennis (marine engineer) and I were there was to help align and start an straight 6, IVECO engine. The engine is practically new with 65 hrs running time on it. However it's been sitting for 8 years. We had removed the fuel injectors the week before and on the ship we cleaned and pressure checked them. Dennis installed them and bleed the air out of the lines as I removed and re-sealed a water cooling manifold. We were worried that the precision parts in the fuel pump might be damaged after sitting so long, but after cranking the engine for a while, one cylinder fired, then another, and another. The workers were surprised.

There are some leaks in the piping. The week before Dennis made a fitting to fix this leak.

Long term plans for the plant are to close it. There are plans to build a new deep water well plant in a new place. In the case, starting over is less costly than rebuilding.