Flood gate

Condition monitoring systems based on piezo-electric crystal technology are being tested by the Environment Agency (

) in a bid to keep flood-prevention pumps in continuous working order even in remote locations.

A pumping station in the Humber estuary that helps protect local villages and farmland from flash flooding is being used for a trial installation, which could, eventually, remove the need for laborious manual checks.

Winestead pumping station, located on the outskirts of the village of Partington, houses two 240kW flow pumps that can each transfer up to 3,700 litres of floodwater per second back into the nearby river and out to sea. The pumps were installed in 1976 to prevent tidal flooding, but are now used increasingly frequently as a reduction in agricultural land use. This means that natural drainage and the soak-away of regular rainwater is reduced.

The pumps were designed to start automatically when floodwaters reached a certain level. However, if they stood idle for some time, EA engineers started to worry that they would not know if the pumps were in good working order until called upon. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that some stations had previously been run by other authorities and little historical maintenance data was available. Often, a breakdown would occur before a field engineer was called to carry out refurbishment.