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Learning about a local underground brook and finding outfalls along the Kennebec River initially sparked my interest in draining a few years ago. Lately, seeing other member's draining photos and reading their stories has renewed my interest in checking them out. The openings I have come across around here are pretty claustrophobic (about 4 to 4.5 feet in diameter), and I know little about the layout of the local system itself. However, as small as the system may be, I definitely want to devote some time this spring/summer to exploring underground. This past weekend, I poked around town and got myself acquainted with potentially promising spots.
This drain is a pain to get to, but is wonderfully graffiti-free.
About 25-30 feet in, there is a large waterfall and manhole access, with the tube continuing on. I climbed the ladder and peeked down the upper level, and it visibly extended for quite a while. I definitely plan to return and push on when I'm better equipped.
Damn grates  . Makes me wonder how long ago the tags inside of this one were written.
This one is pretty frustrating; I'm not sure I would trust myself to make it in and out without falling to the rocks below. Probably won't be attempting it anytime soon, but at least it makes for a cool photo op in the winter.
And finally, I'm hoping that someone with drain infrastructure knowledge can help me identify something that I found:
At the bottom of this very large concrete staircase.....
...Inside a neglected barbed-wire-fenced square....
...Is a rusty old hatch. The interior of said hatch is flooded, with a ladder extending into the murky depths. There are what appear to to ventilation pipes sticking out of the ground nearby, fastened to a wooden pole. It obviously hasn't been maintained, so I can only assume it's abandoned, but I would love to know what purpose it served. Considering it's directly adjacent to the river, I would think it had something to do with flushing out excess drainage water (or something of that nature), but I've never seen anything like it before.
[last edit 3/31/2015 3:45 AM by Sanitarium Sean - edited 1 times]
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It's hard to say for sure what that hatch is, but if you see ventilation pipes, that makes me think it's likely a sewer, not storm drain. There was once a time when it was perfectly acceptable to just dump sewerage straight into rivers, so this might be an old abandoned system that did that.
Then again, I could be completely wrong.
My general advice for you with those outfalls is, don't waste your time with ones that small. They usually just start shrinking once you get in them anyway. Keep doing research and look for ones you can stand up in. Google Earth is a great place to start - look for rivers and creeks that seem to just vanish on the map.
That being said, you COULD squeeze your way down one of those tiny drains and find something awesome and prove me wrong! (but you probably won't) 
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess | |
What DJ Craig said, sewers generally always get smaller as you go upstream from an outfall. The only exception I have encountered is an overflow outfall that started as an oval (long was horizontal) that I started the first 100m crouching, then it opened up to a regular circle pipe. The pipe could pass the same volume/time but took up less vertical space.
The hatch you showed looks like hatches I have seen in my old stomping grounds, but they were never flooded like the one pictured. Is the hatch located next to any river structures like a lowhead dam or under-river pipe of any sort? That seems like a pretty large headframe for your run-of-the-mill manhole that close to an outfall, especially being all fenced in. It also appears to have a nice ladder as opposed to the typical rusty or CIP rubber coated rungs in typical manholes. I would wonder if the water level corresponds to the river, or if it stays at that level year round?
Try google maps to see if there are any facilities within 200m or see if you can overlay your city's Sewer Atlas onto the location and maybe find something interesting, though it may it yield to any further exploring opportunity. Not much you can do if it is flooded, and a vertical shaft being flooded is not a part of any engineering plan that I have ever seen.
"It's nothing, only the smellz." | |
GoPro, Cable, and Strong Light. See what's in tha hole!!
Ezekiel 25:17 | |
Good scouting so far. Google is your friend. Look for storm drain and sewer maps/surveys/assets/etc. I have found that public works departments occasionally publish various reports that may have maps or location descriptions of storm and sewer lines with outfalls and general pipe sizes. Also as other has said, try google earth and look along rivers and lakes. When all else fails, grab a few lights and head on in the ones you know. Good luck and have fun.m
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Thank you guys for all the input! I will definitely put some more effort into finding larger outfalls once all the snow melts and things dry up a little bit (and with the help of Google). Wranglerroadhead, I'm not aware of any under-river pipes or outfalls near that hatch; it's not too far from the sewage treatment plant, so it could have been some kind of sewage release system, but I really don't know. I think some more research on my part is in order!
Anyway, I figure that if my search for bigger local drains is fruitless, poking around in the ones I've found certainly can't hurt .
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Posted by Sanitarium Sean
Anyway, I figure that if my search for bigger local drains is fruitless, poking around in the ones I've found certainly can't hurt .
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This is definitely true. Although I will say, in my area, which is a small town in the middle of nowhere, when I first got into exploring, I thought "No way we'll have any decent-sized drains here", and I explored some pretty claustrophobic drains in my early days. But I've since discovered many MUCH larger drains in my area that are really awesome. So you might be surprised what you find.
"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess |
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