A UTILITY – which plunged 150 metres into the Blue Lake last month – has been safely retrieved from the volcanic crater this morning following a successful operation coordinated by SA Water.
SA Water’s Mount Gambier-based team together with crane and diving experts safely removed the partially-submerged Mitsubishi Triton in just under two hours.
When the operation commenced just after 7am, dozens of people had gathered at different lookouts around the lake’s edge.
One group of tourists – who were just hoping to catch a glance at Mount Gambier’s main tourist attraction – were gobsmacked when they heard a car was being retrieved.
“Someone crashed their car all the way down there?” one tourist said.
The group joined the watching party as professional intersate divers began to hook the vehicle up to a dinghy before floating it to the nearby pumping station.
Once at the pumping station, divers attached the vehicle to the hoist and the inflatable devices were removed.
It was lifted around 15 metres to a platform on the pumping station, before it was wrapped in tarp and hoisted to the top.
While the operations appeared to happen seamlessly, SA Water’s senior manager of Production and Treatment Lisa Hannant said the retrieval was a complex and delicate process.
“Although the actual lift only took around 45 minutes, we have been busy planning and considering all possible aspects of this operation for the past several weeks,” Ms Hannant said.
“This type of job is very unique, but we still treated it like any other major work in terms of putting the safety of the community and our workers at the forefront.”
While Ms Hannant was relieved the large-scale operation was successful, she did admit it came at a cost.
“It has been a complex operation and I guess you could imagine there is a cost involved, but we are still working our way through that,”
“At the moment SA Water is covering those costs, but our focus has been retrieving the car and making sure we do it safely.
“We will now turn our focus to other issues now that it is over.”
The bulk of on-site preparation began yesterday, including set up of the crane, and the use of divers to manoeuvre the car into position
“Early this morning, the dive crew floated the vehicle around 200 metres to the retrieval area, before it was lifted out of the water by a 220 tonne crane with a 71-metre arm, which was situated on a higher level within our pumping station site,” Lisa said.
“Once out of the water, the car was placed on a truck and transported off-site to be used by the State Emergency Service (SES) for training exercises.”
Mount Gambier’s drinking water supply was, as a precaution at the start of today’s exercise, switched to being sourced from the local borefield.
“The water remains safe to drink, but some customers may notice a slight difference in taste and colour,” Lisa said.
“SA Health were notified of the change, along with the local hospital and any critical customers, as per standard procedure.”
Ms Hannant said she expected the water to be switched back by tomorrow afternoon.
“Water quality results from samples collected from the lake after the car was removed, will determine when water supply can again be sourced from the Blue Lake,” Ms Hannant said.
“At this stage, we expect results to be available and the supply switch to occur on Saturday afternoon.”
