Good to know a welder

Last fall, after our first snow of the year, I noticed another pinhole leak in our pump station manifold.  As we have discussed off and on the last year, much of our infrastructure is approaching twenty years old and is definitely showing it's age.  This time the 2" line from our pressure maintenance pump was victim to rusting and possibly electrolysis.  At the most basic level, rust is the result of a reaction between iron and oxygen in water or at least the presence of water, while electrolysis is basically the transfer of current through free ions like sodium.  

The PM pump is a submersible (much like a sump pump in your basement) high pressure pump.  It does exactly what it sounds like, maintains our pressure set point saving wear and tear on our main pumps which are designed to run for extended periods, instead of short bursts.  Anytime we have to make repairs to our pump station, we inspect the condition of the steel pipes, as of late they are not in good condition.  There is a pretty significant amount of rust inside the pipes which is normal with mild steel, but in our case it is accelerated by the high sodium content of our water.  Thus, we are forced to make annual repairs to our pump station plumbing to repair leaks.

Today our leak consists of a pinhole leak in the bottom of a weld.  It is currently a tiny drip, but behind that pinhole leak is a 1-2" cavern in the inside wall of the pipe, and this is what makes fixing these leaks a little more challenging.  The other challenge in this case is actually getting to the area to make a repair...

We are sealed back up for now, hopefully we can make another season without needing more welding on our station.