Pump "severely corroded" at London Avenue Canal

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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — The Army Corps of Engineers is taking another look at their pumps in the city after one was found to be severely corroded. The pumps are supposed to last 35 years, but this one only made it to five.

The discovery came just three months away from hurricane season.

James Brousse lives along the London Avenue Canal and was shocked when he heard the news.

“I don’t understand why it didn’t last long,” said Brousse. “If one is bad maybe the other ones are going to go bad too.”

The Corps of Engineers spent over $600 million to build the London Avenue, Orleans Avenue, and 17th Street Canal pumping stations. They’ve been operational since 2018.

“The Corps of Engineers is committed to serving a 35-year design life,” said Colonel Cullen Jones.

Now, inspections are underway on the other 16 pumps across all three stations.

“Right now we are going out of an abundance of caution to see if it’s systemic or unique to London Avenue pump number one,” the Colonel said.

Preliminary findings show the pumps are seeing varying levels of corrosion. Even so, the corps says they remain fit for service.

“Once we go through and conduct the assessment across the entire board to determine what the root cause we will develop a corrective action plan so that the Corps of Engineers can deliver the 35-year design life for these pumps,” said Colonel Jones.

All in all the corps believe the pumping stations will be good to go for hurricane season. They do intend to do additional research to determine a more accurate cause of the corrosion and what can be done about it.