Good to the last drop

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Timothy Taylor
  • 39th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
INCIRLIK AIR BASE, Turkey --  Incirlik Air Base receives less than 18 inches of rainfall annually. With such minimal precipitation, maintaining Incirlik's water supply is critical.

Robert Rooney, 39th Civil Engineer Squadron Facilities maintenance manager, and his shop of 14 personnel maintain, replace and respond to emergency breaks in the water infrastructure.

"Basically, if there's water flowing through it, we maintain it," said Duran Karsli, 39th CES plumbing shop foreman.

Incirlik's water infrastructure is more than 45-years-old and is slowly being repaired and in some cases, it has been replaced. All the water pipes are underground and due to the area's seismic activities, the ground shifts and moves fairly often, sometimes causing the pipes to break or crack.

"Our shop receives almost 20 calls a month about broken lines, rushing water and even internal plumbing like leaky faucets, toilets and fire sprinkler systems," said Mr. Rooney.

If there's a clean break or small fracture on the pipe Mr. Karsli and a crew will find the break and apply a full circle clamp, essentially a stainless steel clamp.

"Applying a clamp to a break or fracture is an industry-approved method to repair water lines fast and efficiently," said Mr. Rooney.

Another method of repair is taking a new piece of piping and replacing a section of piping underground rather than a single break. Replacing an entire section of pipe is only necessary when there is too much rust, or if there are too many stress cracks, which could result in future breaks.

Whenever a section of pipe is worked on or is exposed to outside elements it is super chlorinated to help ward off bacteria from entering the water. The 39th Medical Operations Squadron Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight is then notified and asked to run a test on the water supply to ensure there are no traces of bacteria, and to verify that the water is safe to drink.

"When a break is reported, the 'Do It Now' truck is sent out to first assess the severity of the damage and to determine whether or not it needs immediate attention or, if it can wait until other projects are completed," said Mr. Karsli. "However emergencies are always responded to within one hour of receiving the call and usually dealt with on the spot."

Part of maintaining the infrastructure is annually exercising every valve on base, and checking valve pits to make sure they're clean and operating properly, making note of any sign of leaking or damage.

"There's more than 55 miles of water lines on Incirlik, and the majority will eventually need replacing," said Mr. Karsli. "With the budget the shop works with, bigger projects get sent up to maintenance engineering. Engineering assesses the importance of the project and 'rack and stacks' all the projects deciding the order in which to take care of the problems."

Replacing the entire infrastructure at once is just not a realistic option for Mr. Rooney's shop. If Mr. Rooney and his shop were to attempt such a project with or without engineerings help, the project cost would easily be in the millions. Mr. Rooney and Mr. Karslis' job is not to set in motion a full scale replacement of the infrastructure, but to replace and maintain as needed and ensure the base is always receiving clean, running water.