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Pictured Above: MCEM Staff and Partners discuss the DIVVY Water System.
Photo by Haley Zilka
On Thursday December 5th, Multnomah County’s Emergency Management (MCEM) team got together with area partners to conduct the first systems training and test of the DIVVY Water System. The systems were purchased through a UASI grant in 2018/2019 and distributed to the Department of Criminal Justice, Portland State University (PSU), Port of Portland (PoP). The system consists of three tanks and they can provide 750 gallons of potable (safe to drink) water in about three hours. These agencies were selected because they are located in areas of the County that could require assistance supplementing their water supply if an event occurred and help from outside agencies became restricted.
Due to the interruption that COVID presented, these systems had not been touched. Work began last fall to regroup and reassess the systems. Last December, MCEM conducted a dry run of the system at PSU, which consisted of just setting up the system. Plans began to attempt an actual systems test with water. MCEM decided to begin the initial testing with a spare system. This system will be the system that all the partners will use so that their systems are not compromised.
The team chose the Madison Street Pier and utilized water from the Willamette River to conduct the test. The setup, purification, and breakdown of the system took two and a half hours from start to finish. Because the setup had been practiced, the system was put together relatively easily and quickly. The most time consuming part was actually drawing the river water up into the tank, which is accomplished with a hand pump. The next step was to allow the chlorine to work with the water, and that took approximately one hour. Once that time period passed, we used another hand pump to draw the water through a charcoal filter, and then into a receptacle. Testing strips were used at the tank after the chlorination period was complete and at the end point after passing through the charcoal filter.
The test was a complete success (yes several people drank it). We are looking forward to the next test in the spring, possibly with PSU. Thank you to those who were willing to brave the cold! The exercise built a lot of confidence in the system. For any information or interest in the next exercise, please feel free to contact Yvette Osborne at yvette.osborne@multco.us.
Pictured Below: MCEM Staff Member Yvette Osborne utilizes the hand pump
component of the DIVVY Water System.
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