Dark Days Rough Roads Read Free Page B

which he thought it might have been. At least
that was a good sign. Sewage would bring disease real quick and he wasn’t sure
how long the municipal waste system would last. He was still on well water and
a septic field, so he didn’t pay much attention to that.
    Slowly
standing up he looked around and saw a younger guy working under the hood of
his car like it was going to do him any good. Looking past the car, he saw a
substation for the water system. Out here in the suburbs, he was really not far
from the Detroit city limit, give or take 12 miles or so, and the water that
was used was purchased from the city of Detroit. It was pumped throughout Lower Michigan with these little pump stations scattered around all over to help boost
water pressure.
    Toward
the east side of the fence line, there was a large pipe coming out of the
ground in a sweeping elbow which reminded him of the air intakes on old ships.
This one, however, was dumping water into a retention pond which apparently had
overflowed a while ago. Off toward the actual substation building, he spotted
another guy who looked to be working on valves. The man was feverishly turning
valves on this pipe, more valves on that pipe, and it looked like a losing
battle. Haliday was interested in this and started heading that way.
    The young
kid working on his car looked up at Haliday and then turned white. The kid
started to visibly tremble at the sight. Haliday had not realized it at the
time, but at this particular moment looking at a guy with a .40 caliber
strapped to his belt and carrying a rifle slung on his pack was just not normal
in this area. Haliday said, “Take it easy kid, just moving on through to go
check out that water plant.” The kid got inside his car and just watched as Haliday
strode by. Coming up a little closer to the substation, he saw a sign warning
trespassers of an electrical fence, so he stopped.
    He just
stood there a moment longer watching the worker turn valves, cussing as he did
so. He started to wonder how the water was being pumped and doubted the extreme
nature of the emergency, thinking the power loss was actually sporadic and not
an entire regional or national loss. This was the reason he didn’t get too
close to the fence.
    The
worker glanced up and saw him standing there. He too stopped dead and looked at
Haliday. Again Haliday found himself telling another person not to worry. This
time he got a response. “No offense partner, but you don’t look like you’re out
hunting rabbit,” said the worker.
    Haliday
said, “I guess you’re right, but anyway, my name is Roger and I was just
curious as to why the pump station has power when the rest of the area is out.”
    The guy
said, “We don’t have power.”
    Confused
a bit, Haliday asked how the water was being pumped. He got a one word answer
to that question. “Gravity.”
    Haliday
said, “I don’t understand, how can that be? Could you put it in lay man’s terms
for me? I’d appreciate it.” Haliday was always looking for this kind of
information; you never know what you may need to do and how to do it.
    The guy
working the valves said, “It’s simple. The river downtown is a lot lower than
the land out here in the burbs. The pumping stations are daisy chained together
to pump the water up the elevation. The pumps stopped, the back flow valves
were electromechanical and they failed along with some of the safety valves.
    Therefore
all of the water pumped into the burbs is now flowing back toward the main
plant and coming out of the overflows into the retention ponds located nearby
their substations.” The pond being past capacity was why the ditch was wet. The
water had to go somewhere.
    When he
thought about it, it really made sense. Haliday asked one more question, “How
much water is flowing back and what’s going to happen at the plant?”
    The guy
paused then said, “I don’t know, but the worst that could happen is that the
main plant and downtown Detroit gets