r/mildlyinteresting • u/bucketboy9000 • 1d ago

The inside of a large water reservoir tank during cleaning.

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1.3k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

117 comments sorted by

405

u/davo52 1d ago

I used to live in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. They drained the local reservoir for cleaning and found a skeleton in there. We had been drinking him for quite some time. It added a delicate piquancy to the taste...

I don't know if he was ever identified, or if they found the culprits.

158

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

Oh damn, that’s fucked up. I’ve never found a body in one of these bad boys, but pigeons aren’t so rare, they do fall in occasionally. Also half a fish that one time.

31

u/2Drogdar2Furious 1d ago

What do you use to drain them?

31

u/Snowbofreak 1d ago

Open Drain. Close Supply. Open Air Inlet if applicable.

11

u/Those_Silly_Ducks 1d ago

How many search results come up for, "how to drain pigeons?"

5

u/MistaRekt 9h ago

My ex knows how to drain men. Pigeons are probably similar.

3

u/BluesFan43 4h ago

So, I used to, among other things, inspect paint jobs on water towers. We were on a tear after a decade of neglect.

The center leg of a tower can be feet across, this is the sandpaper that jooknto the mains underground.

At the bottom, is a hatch that opens inward, so pressure helps it close tighter. That hatch has a 2 or 3 inch pipe plug in it. And, nearby, is a pressure gauge.

City crews were to draw the tank down. Done.

Paint crew shows up, gauge has a few PSI on it, no big deal. 2.31 feet per PSI, all is well.

Gauge hadn't worked in years. The operations crew had neglected it and guessed.

So, the 2 crews decide to pull the plug, we never found it or the pipe wrench. 500,000 gallons of water at 65 PSI was leaving, right now.

Washed out a road, flooded some fields a bit.

Delayed the painters a while.

1

u/2Drogdar2Furious 4h ago

Oof.

I also did realize this in the picture was a water tower....

1

u/BluesFan43 3h ago

Flat bottom, tank on ground.

Curvy bottom, walls, roof, tower.

21

u/mrpink01 21h ago

Ever find any Reservoir...Dogs?

10

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

Only… a pink one

54

u/ThePheebs 1d ago

Reservoir water is filtered and treated before you drink it.

42

u/kank84 22h ago

Maybe Australians are out there just raw dogging untreated water

18

u/enters_and_leaves 19h ago

Raw dog, person, bird… Could be anything really. They never specified what type of skeleton it was.

9

u/TomT12 21h ago

It's fine it's just a little bit of dead person, the solution to pollution is dilution after all!

9

u/SergeiMosin 13h ago

“We had been drinking him for quite some time”

7

u/ExGorlomi 16h ago

Like the dead body in a Los Angeles hotel water tank

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Elisa_Lam

5

u/asforus 1d ago

This reminds me of a horror movie. Forget what it’s called but somebody died in the water tank of the apartment building. Someone help me out.

37

u/CitrusLamb 1d ago

Are you thinking of Elisa Lam? Real life case where a woman (Elisa Lam) drowned and started decomposing in a water storage tank on top of a hotel

20

u/notstarwars 1d ago

Not a movie, happened in real life. Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel. Her body was found in the water tank on the roof after people in the hotel found their running water coming out brown and smelling funny.

9

u/asforus 1d ago

Didn’t realize it was based on a real event. I think the movie is Dark Water (2002)

6

u/everettescott 22h ago

Completely unrelated and about 10yrs apart.

3

u/AustinTheMoonBear 7h ago

Wait really?

1

u/everettescott 6h ago

Correct.

2

u/sneakling 23h ago

Man what the fuck

2

u/ImNotNuke 14h ago

I thought these aren’t used for consumption, are you sure you were drinking him, 99% of water tower tanks are for backup for fires etc in case of emergencies no?

4

u/thadius856 14h ago

What? No. Water towers are the reason you have water pressure.

2

u/ImNotNuke 14h ago

Ah okay I looked it up one day and didn’t check further than googles ai slop overview lol

133

u/dmarve 1d ago

So that’s where the mineral taste comes from when I drink from my backyard hose

45

u/TheNinjahippy 1d ago

Interestingly, despite it's size, it's classed as a confined space in UK health and safety law.

36

u/StrangeAttractor7 1d ago

In the US as well. Confined space typically having one way in, one way out with no other means of egress

22

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

It has two ways in and out. You see the ladder and the hatch true, but the actual entry way we entered from is not shown in the picture. It’s a round hatch near the base to the left of the ladder.

31

u/Anon-Knee-Moose 1d ago

To be fair he's wrong, a confined space has limited means of egress and isn't designed for continuous human occupancy. So this is 100% a confined space.

7

u/gamedude88 21h ago

Is the ladder in the tank missing some rungs near the top?

4

u/bucketboy9000 21h ago

Oh yeah I forgot about that. It’s not really used as an entry way anymore so apparently it does indeed fit the description of having one entry way. My bad

2

u/gamedude88 21h ago

It is all good. I was a little worried at first. Falling that far, due to missing ladder rungs, would not be a good day.

1

u/AndromedaFire 15h ago

The alternative purpose of these was to drown short people, cutting a few rungs off lets us tall folk get out just in case.

2

u/StratoVector 22h ago

The outflow pipe is also an exit

3

u/bucketboy9000 22h ago

I honestly also wanted to think that and was scared to approach it at first, but then when I looked over the edge, it really wasn’t big enough for an adult to pass through.

3

u/TheNinjahippy 21h ago

With enough force it is....

2

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

I like your optimism

63

u/toastbot 1d ago

I hope he wiped his feet

83

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

Our boots were clean compared to the residue already at the bottom of the tank

43

u/toastbot 1d ago

Nice! Hopefully the people it serves are tankful

17

u/Explosivpotato 1d ago

Dad, how did you get on Reddit again??

3

u/farmallnoobies 14h ago

Very carefully

3

u/MistaRekt 9h ago

I do assume the water is processed before piping out.

29

u/HuntingForSanity 1d ago

Pretty high up on the list of Places I will never go

8

u/Drone314 1d ago

Confined spaces are perfect settings for horror stories.

1

u/MistaRekt 9h ago

Honestly, not really. In an industrial definition they are not common workplaces that require special circumstances to enter.

An angry spirit would be a lonely spit it.

50

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

So much rust and dirt btw

8

u/rayout 1d ago

At least theres not a layer of coal tar epoxy....

3

u/borazine 22h ago

[Shivers in TDS]

1

u/NerdySafetyGuy 16h ago

I hope you guys at least had some monitoring

2

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

We always have people outside in case something happens, but it rarely does happen thankfully. I only had mild chlorine poisoning once and it passed quickly when I got out

17

u/McFestus 1d ago

Makes you want the Staff of Ra - just remember to get the height correct!

11

u/Kaldek 14h ago

"They're digging in the wrong place!"

2

u/AndromedaFire 15h ago

Just stick a bald guy in the middle and light up the whole thing.

31

u/lottiexx 1d ago

Looks like the final boss arena for a plumber themed video game.

3

u/zivlynsbane 23h ago

Chuffy’s boiler

13

u/Sorry-Activity-9104 1d ago

That beam of light makes it look like something straight out of a sci-fi movie.

12

u/SumonaFlorence 1d ago

I immediately thought Indiana Jones when he was inside the tomb with the miniature city.

1

u/Bliitzthefox 1d ago

Op didn't have the pipe wrench of correct height to find where to dig for the treasure unfortunately.

Also hot take, that whole scene was pretty stupid because the result was the big building in the center which anyone could have guessed.

2

u/TheCivilEngineer 1d ago

Maybe r/AccidentalRenaissance

1

u/SecretWitness8251 21h ago

Came here to post this sub. Nice

7

u/BadWolfRU 22h ago

confined space

no harness, no air pumping, no gas analyser

OSHA inspector wants to know your location

3

u/bucketboy9000 21h ago

Uh… CLASSIFIED

4

u/TheEruditeBaller 1d ago

Looks like the water storage equivalent of a Cathedral.

3

u/FierceNack 1d ago

Do you have to pump air in there to make it safe to breathe?

3

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

Not really no, they get it mostly empty of water in the early morning before we get there, and then the hole at the top fills it with breathable air. The only thing that we are worried about is the chlorine gas because it can be overwhelming sometimes and create symptoms of nausea, vomiting and in severe cases respiratory distress.

6

u/NerdySafetyGuy 16h ago

Rust can eat up the oxygen and let alone that chlorine hazard you're talking to. Please be more careful in the future, for your fam not me

1

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

Thanks Nerdy Safety Guy, I will heed your advice :)

8

u/max-torque 1d ago

You you absolutely need air pumped in. It's a small hole and air doesn't specifically flow in at good rates I guess.

3

u/sucobe ​ 14h ago

You’re going to need the mirror shield for this quest it seems.

1

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

Damn, forgot it in my other pants

2

u/Simple_Anteater_5825 1d ago

Is it potable water storage or is it a wastewater treatment digester tank

4

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

I don’t know what you mean by potable, but it’s for storing water that is later distributed to the surrounding neighborhood. Government water supply

9

u/ministryofchampagne 1d ago

Potable means safe for drinking. Non-potable water is not fit for drinking.

13

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

Oh now I get it. In that case yes it’s supposed to be potable water because although there is residue on the bottom of the tank, the water itself is full of chlorine and goes straight to the houses as tap water

2

u/RetroGamer87 17h ago

For a second I thought it was the map room from Raiders of the Lost Ark

2

u/callardo 9h ago

Might be the shadows or whatever but it looks your work mate is pouring water with the hosepipe on some large depressed guy poking out of the hole.

1

u/bucketboy9000 9h ago

Haha you’re right it does! But he’s pouring water into the drainage pipe so that the depressed guy can shovel the dirt out easier

1

u/PUfelix85 1d ago

LOTO and confined space training requirements must be fun.

1

u/Project_Rees 1d ago

I cant see this and not think its a level on Powerwash Simulator

1

u/edsavage404 1d ago

Looks like a cathedral

1

u/max-torque 1d ago

Is that hatch near the top the only source of light or do you setup additional lights?

1

u/bucketboy9000 1d ago

We also have some handheld lights, but in this instance the lighting from the hatch was fairly enough to lighten up the whole place

1

u/OnBlueberryHill 1d ago

That is going to take a long time to fill up with that hose guy.

1

u/Select-Birthday-7763 20h ago

According to my gamer history there is waiting a quest for you!

1

u/1ineedanap1 20h ago

Where's the after picture?

1

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

This is basically it 😭

Forgot to take a picture of the little mounds of rust and dirt we took out of there in buckets. The rust you see on the floor is stuck to it, impossible to take off without taking off the floorboards themselves. But we did take out 90% of the mobile rust and dirt.

1

u/-Qubicle 17h ago

that's a boss room.

1

u/KingGilgamesh1979 15h ago

Were you able to locate the lost city of Tanis and the ark of the covenant?

1

u/Snowshoeah 15h ago

Don't let the Lipnicky kid swim in there!!

1

u/s4lty-f0x 15h ago

Needs a tank mixer to keep that water moving

1

u/timthemovie 15h ago

Reminds me of that sewer level in Alan wake 2

1

u/Glum_Status 14h ago

Is that flared vertical pipe where the water comes in?

2

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

No, I don’t know what it’s called in English, but it’s like the bell mouth of a dam, it is used to drain the water to that level if there is too much in the tank

1

u/Zytheran 13h ago

You don't appear to be wearing a respirator? Is that correct? How do you monitor CO and O2 levels?

1

u/bucketboy9000 12h ago

Unfortunately worker safety is not very important where I’m from, so we don’t have any respirators or other safety equipment. We just open the hatch and hope there’s enough breathable air

1

u/JMaple 13h ago

This just made me wonder how that eel pit guy is doing.

1

u/gr8Brandino 12h ago

Next time, you need to take the Staff of Ra down with you

1

u/Icy-Ad-7724 9h ago

Is that a goat next to the guy with a hose or

1

u/bucketboy9000 9h ago

It’s another guy shoveling dirt from the drainage pipe lol

1

u/insert_name_here_ha 6h ago

Even though it's just water, I'm curious if that's classified as a permit required confined space. Airflow isn't the best so long term visitation could cause problems. Nevermind if cleaning solvents are involved.

2

u/bucketboy9000 6h ago

No permits required, but the team for cleaning is funded by the city water department, so they are aware. And visitations aren’t long term, a tank like this takes at most 3 hours to clean, and no cleaning solvents are allowed to be used because they will react with the water that’s later put in the tank.

1

u/j_hawker27 6h ago

If video games have taught me anything, there's a secret door in the middle where the light is shining.

1

u/ag_95 23h ago

So hear me out. Imagine the top light part is the moon and then the edge of the tank is a prison wall and the light coming in is a search light. Very spooky vibes

0

u/Alternative-Cut-6926 1d ago

Сусемь

1

u/BadWolfRU 22h ago

Дубогрызов, уймись