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AP Newsbreak: Report says divers swept toward pump in CA aqueductBy SAMANTHA YOUNG02/28/07 15:41:47
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The bodies of two divers who died earlier this month while inspecting a pumping station in the California Aqueduct were found in front of the lone pump that was operating when they submerged, according to a preliminary investigation by the Department of Water Resources.
The internal report obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press sheds light for the first time on the events surrounding the Feb. 7 deaths of divers Tim Crawford, 50, and Martin Alvarado, 44.
It indicates that the state employees may have been swept unintentionally toward the operating pump as they were attempting to clean the metal grates that prevent garbage from being swept into the aqueduct's pumping system.
The five-page report offers no conclusions about how the men died or how their bodies ended up in front of the operating pump. But it provides the first account from a third person who was attempting to follow the divers' movements from shore.
That person, a water department employee referred to in the report as a dive tender, watched two patterns of bubbles move across the aqueduct after Crawford and Alvarado went into the murky water, where visibility was just one to two feet.
"He followed the bubbles while standing on the deck and noticed the bubbles move to the front of units 2 and then 3," the report states, referring to the six pumps submerged below the canal. "Once the bubbles surfaced in front of unit 4 ... the dive tender noted the bubbles began to sweep towards unit 5."
Unit five was the lone pump scheduled to be operating while the divers were under water. They were not supposed to be near it, according to the report, which was distributed to Department of Water Resources staff members.
When the divers failed to surface, the pump was shut off and another diver arrived to search for them. The bodies were found at the bottom of the aqueduct in front of the pump that had been running.
Crawford's wife said more than two hours had passed before the rescue diver went into the water to retrieve the bodies. Part of the reason was because the dive tender did not have any equipment, and the rescue diver took so long to reach the site, she said.
"What concerns me is it took them so long to get someone in the water," Roxanne Crawford told the AP on Wednesday.
Crawford and Alvarado are the first members of the department's dive team to die while on duty.
On the morning of their deaths, they were scheduled to search for invasive mussels on the metal trash grates at the Dos Amigos Pumping Plant. The station, about nine miles from the Central Valley town of Los Banos, lifts water into a section of the California Aqueduct that feeds Southern California.
The divers had talked to the plant operators and knew the one pump was operating when they went into the water, the report said.
The diving program has been suspended while the deaths are investigated by the Department of Water Resources, the California Highway Patrol and the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
The deaths have brought scrutiny to the department's 13-member dive program.
The divers regularly use recreational scuba gear that experts say would have not have been used by trained professionals in the private sector.
Diving professionals have said the conditions in the California Aqueduct - filled with fast-moving, murky water - should have required a safer method known as surface-supply diving. In those method, divers are equipped with helmets, ropes and oxygen lines that anchor the divers to the shore while a monitoring station gauges their whereabouts and physical condition.
The department has disputed that its equipment was insufficient. Nevertheless, in a letter to employees that accompanied the internal report, Department of Water Resources Director Lester Snow said the department was establishing a team of experts to review its program.
That was one of two recommendations contained in the internal report. The other recommendation was to suspend the program pending the outcome of the various investigations.
Members of the department's dive team perform routine maintenance on the state's aqueducts and reservoirs.
In the days following the deaths, investigators at the California Highway Patrol said there was no evidence of a struggle or equipment failure. Neither diver's wet suit or tank was damaged, and both men had air remaining in their tanks.
Mike Panelli, a spokesman with the California Highway Patrol, said investigators were awaiting autopsy results. A Cal-OSHA spokesman did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
Although running a single pump was not considered dangerous by the department, it appears the swift currents and water pressure could have swept the men to the pumping unit by sheer force, said Phil Newsum, executive director of the Houston-based Association of Diving Contractors International.
The men also may have lost their bearings in the murky water, he said.
"Divers are going to get swept into it like opening up a drain in a tub of water. The water wants to go down," Newsum said. "The question is why were any of the units running?"
In some cases, strong water pressure can shock the body and cause internal organ damage, Newsum said.
The Department of Water Resources report says the rescue diver found one of the men face down toward the bottom of the aqueduct and the other within a couple feet of the pump's trash grate.
Emergency crews attempted to resuscitate both men, who were pronounced dead at Los Banos County Hospital and were taken immediately to the Merced County morgue.
Roxanne Crawford said she was not informed of her husband's death until after he was taken to the morgue because the water department had a "no call order."
"I didn't get to see him," she said.
Department spokesman Ted Thomas declined to comment further on the deaths until the investigations are finished.
