Interesting article

DIVER takes wild ride, sucked into Lake Michigan pipe

Saturday, July 09, 2005
By Ted Roelofs

The Grand Rapids Press

PORT SHELDON TOWNSHIP -- Long before a diver's brush with death at the
Consumers Energy coal plant a week ago today, the waters offshore had a
much deadlier record.

Numerous swimmers drowned in the 1970s as they rode the plant's warm
water discharge current out into Lake Michigan, then failed to reach
shore.

Consumers thought those risks were behind it when it put intake and
discharge pipes along the lake bottom -- until scuba diver Joan Eddy
was sucked into a broken section of pipe last Saturday.
She was swept on a 4,000-foot voyage through a pitch-dark pipe that
lasted about 10 minutes, before she emerged into daylight in an
open-air intake canal inside plant property, five miles south of Grand
Haven.

Veteran scuba diver Dennis Festerling said it is not hard to imagine
Eddy's state of mind as she tumbled toward an unknown fate.

"I think I would have assumed that I was going to die," said
Festerling, 33, of Allegan. "I would have assumed that I was going to
be chopped into little bits."

Eddy, 40, of Grayling, survived the ordeal with just a bloody nose. She
declined medical treatment after the incident, and she and her husband,
Stephen, also have declined to talk about what happened.

Consumers spokesman Dennis McKee said Eddy was "jubilant" to be alive
when he came upon her shortly after she walked out of the intake canal.
She had been diving in about 40 feet of water 3,500 feet offshore with
her husband and another couple when she suddenly disappeared,
triggering a sizable search.

McKee confirmed this past week that a section of the utility's intake
system at the bottom of the lake had been damaged weeks earlier. Bolts
holding a 42-inch section of pipe had sheared off, leaving a hole that
large in an 8-foot diameter pipe about 3,500 feet from shore. Eddy was
sucked through that hole, then drawn into an 18-foot diameter pipe,
tumbling through the water at about 6 feet per second until she entered
the canal.

McKee said Consumers has been attempting to fix the damaged section but
has been delayed by rough weather. He expects it will be repaired "in
days, not weeks." The pipes draw water from the lake to cool the steam
used to generate electricity.

McKee said it is conducting a review of its safety procedures to see if
additional measures -- such as underwater warning signs -- are
warranted.

Water system officials in Holland, Wyoming and Grand Rapids all said
they have protective screens on their underwater pipes.

McKee said Consumers current underwater system is much safer for the
public than the old one, in which water was discharged and drawn at the
lake's surface.

In 1977, the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department stepped up patrols at
Windsnest Park -- the site of last weekend's diving incident -- after a
series of drownings at the warm water outlet. A township official
stated at the time there had been 13 drownings and 125 rescues at the
outlet since the park was established a few years earlier.

Avid divers say that section of water still is popular, both for divers
and anglers drawn by the fish attracted to the warm water "bubbler"
under the lake's surface. Divers bored by miles of barren, sandy lake
bottom are attracted by the pipe complex, the presence of fish and the
many boat anchors lost in that area, according to dive shop owner Peggy
Kurpinski.

"They go there to look for lost anchors. It's a nice warm spot to go.
Typically, it's not a difficult dive," said Kurpinski, owner of
Adventures in Diving in Holland.

But she said divers must be wary when diving in areas that could pose
unknown dangers.

"You always need to take some precautions in diving."

Kurpinski said it is likely Joan Eddy had just a single tank, normally
good for about 40 minutes of air. She would use up that air much faster
in a panic situation.

Festerling said he has dived the Consumers site about a half-dozen
times in recent years. When he does, he takes care to avoid the
currents near the discharge point.

"You don't want any surprises when you are underwater," he said.