Lagoon #150 Update

8:45 AM The PG150M pump has been removed and is now being installed at lagoon #157. There are still 2 excavators at the site. One worker is on site smoothing out the mud ruts made when they removed the pump. No other activity.

Lagoon #157 Update

8:35AM The PG150M pump is being installed by 4 workers.

10:45AM Pump has been installed but is not "on". Pulte expects pump to be turned "on" sometime today.

2:00PM Pump is "on" and outlet hose is fed into a sediment filter bag before discharge into the curb drain.

4:15PM Outlet hose is disconnected from the filter bag and unfiltered water is being pumped directly into the curb drain.

Lagoon #157

Pulte reports that the pre-construction meeting and also the staking of lagoon #157 was completed last week (Friday 6/26). I observed this lagoon today and it has a lot of stakes marking various boundaries.

Lagoon #150 Update

8:30AM the 3 excavators and pump were still on site, but not in operation. The rough grading of the banks seems to be completed. A 2 person surveying team from Thomas & Hutton were on site and beginning to survey the lagoon. No other activity at this time.

Lagoon #150 Update

At 8:30 AM there was no activity. The pump is "off" and the 3 excavators are still on site.

Lagoon #150 Update

10:45 AM Three excavators on site, two being used working on the east bank. Pump is "on" but not pumping anything. The water level is very low now. A T&H worker (different one from yesterday) was also on site.

Lagoon#150 Update

No sign of any activity at 8:50AM today. The pump is "off". Water level is much lower than yesterday.

At 1:15PM today there were two excavators dredging this lagoon. A 3rd excavator was on site but not being used. The PG150M pump was "on".

At 3:00PM a Thomas & Hutton worker (engineer?) was at the site. Pump was still ("on").

Lagoon #150 Update

8:30 AM The excavator was back at the site. The pump was not "on". No workers at the site.

2:15PM the pump was back "on" and the water level was down considerably from this morning. no workers at site. Excavator is still there.

Lagoon 150 Update

No sign of any activity as of 9:00 AM today. The water level seems higher than on Friday/Saturday.

Lagoon #150 Update

There's more water in the lagoon after today's early AM rainfall. The pump was turned on at 8:45 AM, then the worker left. Can't tell if the intake is still buried in mud, but there is water being pumped into the curb inlet. PBG now has an excavator (?) on site. No workers on site.

1:30PM - Excavator is gone. Pump is "on".

4:15PM - No sign of the excavator. pump is "off". Some residual water remains in lagoon.

Lagoon #150 update

The water puddle has increased due to the rainfall last evening. As of 8:45 AM and again at 11:15 AM today there was no pumping and/or construction activity in progress.

Lagoon #150 Update

This lagoon still has a sizeable puddle of remaining water. The pump was "off" at 8:30AM today but it wouldn't matter since the hose intake is buried in the mud.

I checked this lagoon again at 11:45 AM today and still no activity. Pump was still "off" and hose intake is still buried in the mud.

Lagoon 150/164 Update

The remaining water level has increased slightly in this lagoon so PBG turned on the pump again at 8:50 AM today.

L-164 has a small aligator in residence. There also are a lot of very small fish surface-feeding.

Lagoon#150 Update

As of 9:30AM today, the pump (GP150M) is operating but there is very little water remaining in this lagoon and the hose intake is buried in the mud, so no more water is being pumped. Note that the pump is positioned this time so that the hoses aren't kinked at the intake/oupout ports. There's evidence of a few very small fish but the lurking birds will take care of them. I took several photos and have included a selected few here (to save space.)

Lagoon #150 Update

Apparently Pulte decided they needed to drain this lagoon down even further, so the large pump is back today. As of 9:00AM today, pumping had not started. There were five workers getting the pump/hose system in place. As reported yesterday, a worker was smoothing out the damaged muddy area in the access path between the houses. Since a large front-end loader was apparently needed to get the pump back in position today, the access path between the two houses is even worse than it was yesterday.
Estate Management is on site with their equipment. It looked like they were standing-by in preparation to attempt to recover any remaining fish in this lagoon.

Lagoon #150 Update

Lagoon #150 has been pumped-down as of this AM. There is some remaining water that apparently is too shallow to pump without clogging the equipment. The pump has been removed and there was a worker trying to smooth out the muddy mess left by the pump wheels in the access path between the two houses.

Lagoon# 150 Update

The pump at lagoon #150 apparently ran out of gas at about 8 AM today. Workers came by later in the AM and got the pump going again. I stopped by around 2:00 PM and the pump was operating as planned. The lagoon is slowly getting pumped-down. It's possible that the 2nd attempt at fish recovery may happen either tomorrow or Tuesday.

Lagoon# 150 Update

Pumping continues at lagoon #150 today. I noticed the kink in the 4" flexible output hose was significantly reduced today and the hose was fully expanded. A much larger volume of water now seems to be being discharged into the curb inlet.

Curb Inlet Debris

An interested party sent us this photo of debris that was recently removed from a curb inlet in the Garden Walk (Phase 6) Neighborhood, which was built about two years ago.

It kind of makes one wonder what might be in some in our Phase 5 curb inlets.

Lagoon# 150 Update 6/4/2009

Pumping was in operation today at about 10:30 AM. The construction supervisor was the only one on site. The 4" flexible output hose remains kinked, so very little volume of water seems to be flowing. I believe the kink is prohibiting the flow volume. However, the supervisor seemed to think removing the kink by adding a 90 degree elbow between the pump output and the hose would make much difference!
BTW, the pump is quite a large unit.

Lagoon #150 Update 6/3/2009

I stopped by Lagoon #150 at 2:15PM today and the pump was in operation. The one worker on site said that he had just started pumping. Even though they were pumping, the 4" flexible discharge hose wasn't very full (I estimate about 1/4 expanded, if that). I reduced the kink somewhat by holding the hose and the volume output increased considerably. Once I let go of the hose, the volume output decreased. I pointed out the kinked hose to the worker and suggested they add a 90 degree elbow to the pump output port. Although he spoke some English,he looked at me quizically. I then told him to tell his boss that they should add the 90 degree elbow. If they do, they'll pump down the lagoon a lot faster. The worker estimated another day or two to pump this lagoon down. We'll see!

Lagoon 164 Update

Pulte has added some more rocks to the backside of L-164, extending the rip-rap all the way to the base of the embankment and extending the slope slightly. The slope does not seem adequate to me.

I've attached a couple of photos showing the backside of the rip-rap outfall.

Lagoon# 150

At 10:00 AM today the pump was still not in operation and there were no workers on site. At this rate, it will take quite a while for this lagoon to get pumped-down. Pulte needs to "speed things up a bit".

When I was at L-150 yesterday I noticed that the discharge hose was pulsating and there didn't seem to be too much water volume being discharged . I then noticed that the hose was kinked at the pump outlet because it was installed at a 90 degree angle to the pump output fitting. It seemed that the pulsating was caused by back-pressure buildup that would then force the kink to open up somewhat, allowing more volume to flow. Once the back-pressure subsided, the kink closed up again, waiting for the next back-pressure surge. There was no worker on site at the time. What a way to run a business!

Update: At 4:30 PM today the pump was still not operating and still no workers on site.

Lagoon# 150

Pulte's contractor started pumping out lagoon #150 early this morning. They have a large pump with a 4" hose, so it shouldn't take too long to pump the lagoon down. The contractor had previously said they were planning to pump directly from L-150 into L-164, but because L-164 is full they are discharging the water from L-150 into the nearest curb drain which apparently empties into a lagoon across the street (Bishop Street).

I have notified the Fishing Club team about the pumping, since they want to try to recover the larger fish that were apparently missed by Estate Management last week when EM seined L-150.