WorldWide Drilling Resource

62 JUNE 2015 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® Inspecting Water Storage Tanks by Ray Roerick Sales Manager, Well-Vu, Inc. A few years back, we received an inquiry from a state water tower inspec- tor. They were required to inspect city water towers every four years. If there was a corrosion, leak, drip, or any pos- sible sign of a problem on the external side, they would be required to drain the tank and send in a crew with all the safety gear, air packs, sterile suits, and lighting tethered to a winch or crane at the inspection entry port. This entire process would sometimes take them four to five days to complete, and all over a damp paint chip on the weld seam on the outside of the tank. The solution was rather simple for them. They wanted a camera, and had done their homework for sure. Unfor- tunately, the state’s budget would not allow them to spend the $30,000 plus for an underwater tethered rover for the inspections. They also wanted to go down into the supply pipe. My suggestion to them was to simply attach a down view well inspection camera to a 10-foot sec- tion of ¾-inch CPVC with threaded fittings on both ends. That would allow them to add distance to their inspection perime- ter, without adding much weight. With some trial and errors, they found a very inexpensive aquatic robot and, using the camera cable as the tethering, they were able to make both options work, depending on the tank. Then they called wondering if there was a simple approach to using a lap- top to view and record the inspections. Sending them to a couple of different Web sites providing USB video grabbing cables and software, they came up with a computer program to video, record, and attach the video right to their report for the community and one for their files, all for under $5000. Nice savings. Ray Ray Roerick may be contacted via e-mail at michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Inspeccionando los Tanques de Almacenamiento del Agua por Ray Roerick Gerente de Ventas, Well-Vu, Inc. Hace unos años, recibimos una pre- gunta de un inspector estatal de torres de agua. Era requerido inspeccionar las Hector Leos Translator Roerick trans. cont’d on page 64.