Purdue boiler blows off
steam, disturbed residents complain
Power plant valve malfunctions,
loud noises disrupt night
By Kurt Esposito
Summer
Editor
Many West Lafayette residents living within a four
mile radius of the southern part of campus were awakened and alarmed
by sudden loud noises early Thursday morning.
"To me it sounded like a jackhammer," said Johnny
Hall, a junior in the School of Liberal Arts. "It was really loud; I'm
surprised it didn't wake up the whole apartment."
The noises came from the Walter Wade Power Plant,
where safety valves began releasing 605 lbs. of steam to prevent a buildup
of pressure.
Joe Mikesell, director of utilities, said the noises
began just after 10 p.m. Wednesday night but did not become disruptive
until midnight. He said a bulk of the noises occurred from then until
2 a.m.
A new computer control system misinterpreted that
a fan was not operating correctly. To compensate for the perceived malfunction
the system tripped a safety valve so steam could be released before
pressure could build up.
Mikesell said the service men working to fix the
problem were unable to locate the nature of the problem because they
thought it had resulted from the fan. They were not able to locate the
true nature of the problem until Thursday morning.
He said the service men working on the problem
were forced to shut the boiler down, but they would be able to maintain
normal operation by the end of Thursday.
"As a result of the noise we woke up a lot of people.
We are truly sorry for that," said Mikesell. "We regret the fact that
it took so long to shut down and it caused so many people an inconvenience.
Fortunately, these things are rare and hopefully it will be a while
until this happens again."
West Lafayette Police Department Captain Mike Francis
said the department received around 100 calls about the noises, many
to the 911 line.
"I imagine the reason so many people called is
that they were awakened in the middle of the night and they were probably
very concerned," he said.
Mikesell said he is disappointed that so many people
dialed 911 when calling to complain or inquire about the noises.
Francis said it was not a big deal because many
people thought the noises may have been an explosion of some sort and
therefore feel that it was emergency.
The power plant, located at the south end of Grant
street, provides steam for heating and chilled water for air conditioning
for the Purdue campus and approximately half the electricity for the
campus.
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