WEB PAGE TOOLS ~ Print this article ~ E-mail your opinion on this article OTHER NEWS STORIES ~ A milestone; Women's Center turns 25 ~ Professor feels targeted by anti-abortion messages ~ Parking garage coming to SCC? ~ Distinguished alumna opens SCC celebration of National Nurses Week ~ Student Senate Report for May 14, 2003 ~ News Briefs Pressure washing trips power - Repair costs estimated at $25,000 Chris Jones Ebbtide Reporter The big trailer-mounted diesel generator running outside the gym for the last two weeks is the result of a $25,000 plumbing accident. Photo by Fred Olson   At approximately 4 a.m. May 2, janitors using high-pressure water to clean a restroom in the athletics building suddenly found themselves in total darkness. Not only had power to the gym gone down but all the buildings on the same circuit, more than a third of campus buildings, had lost power too. Resetting the main circuit breakers only restored power for a few minutes before the breakers tripped the system offline again. Clearly there was a major fault in the circuit, and a building-by-building search for the source of the problem began. The logical place to start such a search was in the area where work had been going on at the time of the failure and, indeed, the gym turned out to be the location of the problem. Water from the pressure washer used to clean the restroom had leaked through the floor and destroyed a large, 4,160-volt transformer supplying power to the athletic building. It was also quickly determined that there would be no quick fix to the problem - the transformer was more than 30 years old and had been a custom-built item when it was new. Ordering of parts and fabrication of a comparable transformer would take days if not weeks. A qualifying karate tournament for the Pan Am Games was scheduled in the building for the following day. To avoid canceling this tournament or any of the many other building activities, it was decided to rent a portable generator. Power was restored to the building at 10:30 pm Friday and, except for a brief period when the generator ran out of fuel, has remained on since then. The total cost of repairs, including rental of the generator, are expected to be about $25,000. © 2003 Shoreline Community College™