After the blast, Spirit Lake was sealed with no outlet. To prevent the lake from spilling over and cutting through the ice and debris dam, the Corps of Engineers asked for bids to pump from the lake to control the level until a diversion tunnel could be bored.
In fall, after the blast, our company, Cornell Pump Co. of Milwaukie, Ore., supplied pumps for a system by Harder Mechanical Co., that controlled the lake level for nearly a year, until the diversion tunnel was complete. The diesel engine driven pumps operated continuously at a rate of nearly 40,000 gallons per minute.
