In an effort to ensure the uninterrupted flow of clean water to Denver Water customers, divers start work today on the 105-year old Cheesman Dam. Cheesman Dam is a major source of water to Denver. This is the first effort to make major upgrades to the dam opened in 1905. At that time, the 221 foot high dam was the tallest in the world. Now, old rusty, leaking cast-iron fixtures are in need of repair.
In order to accomplish this task before winter, divers will live below water in a compression chamber for at least a month. 200 feet down, divers will live in a six-bed chamber. Twelve hour shifts will require divers to use jackhammers, blowtorches, blasting and drills to make the $18.3 million worth of repairs.
Spencer Dell, a member of the Seattle-based contractor Global Diving & Salvage Inc’s underwater diving team describes the underwater quarters as “a space shuttle in reverse.” The workers will use a diving bell, connected to hoses and wires to shuttle back and forth from the work-site to their living chambers. Wearing rubber suits and helmets fitted with earpieces and microphones, the workers words must be unscrambled by a support crew floating above because of the helium-oxygen mixture they are required to breathe while 200 feet under water.
Located southwest of Denver along the South Platte River, Cheesman Dam stores 80,000 acre feet of water used to service Denver Water’s 1.3 million customers. The work beginning today is required to avoid a possible break in the dam that could injure or kill dam workers and disrupt water supplies. "If we had an issue at Cheesman," said Jeff Martin, the dam-safety engineer in charge of project design, "the whole South Platte system would be shut down." Performing these under-water repairs also prevents having to drain the reservoir cutting off the water supply.
Of course there are risks associated with this type of under-water work. There are challenges the workers will face trying to drill straight holes where they will pack explosives. “You have to tie yourself off, onto the rock, while you hold onto the jackhammer,” Dell said. “Otherwise, you sink.” It is hoped that the work performed now by these divers will hold for another century. Making things all the more interesting, it’s possible that divers may discover historical artifacts while drilling. “Think about old-time frontier guys who left stuff – maybe a knife, or a musket,” Dell said.
The support crew stationed above the divers sends steak, shrimp, spaghetti and cake through a special main-chamber opening. "The only pleasure they have in there is eating, so we try to feed them pretty good," said Darryl Heath, 54, a former diver who is coordinating cuisine. When not on duty, workers will watch movies, read and sleep. "There's a lot to getting any kind of service," Dell said. "We're just a different type of plumber."
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