Good weather is aiding efforts to avert potentially disastrous floods as crews work to restore the pump house station that handles storm and wastewater for a 26 square-mile swath of South Chicago.

Two pumps are back in operation at the Racine Avenue station, and water management officials say a third should be in place by day's end, according to General Superintendent Richard Lanyon of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago.

Lanyon provided the update at a meeting of the district's board this afternoon.

He said a third pump, pumping to Bubbly Creek, would begin operating today and a fourth would be added tomorrow.

"We're proceeding well on making the restoration," Lanyon said.

Two back-to-back storms on the night of Aug. 4 flooded the station, located at 3838 S. Racine Ave., knocking out electricity for its 14 massive pumps.

The pump house station transports wastewater and storm water to the Stickney Water Reclamation Plant for treatment. Its service area extends from Racine Avenue on the west to the lakefront and from Roosevelt Road south to 87th Street.

South Siders awoke last week to find flooded basements and yards. According to a district press release, the Chicago Water Management Department received 1,339 storm related calls, of which 490 were incidents of basement flooding that occurred in areas served by the furthest point of the pump house between 67th Street and 87th Street in the 6th, 7th and 8th wards.

Today, the board approved an emergency $100,000 contract with Jay-Dee Contractors, Inc. for drying and inspection services for the station. A second emergency contract, in the amount of $2.5 million for Midwest Service Center, L.L.C., will be formally ratified at the next board meeting Sept. 4.

Midwest Service Center, L.L.C. is an electrical repair company based in Hobart, Ind. The company is drying out and reassembling the motors in the flooded, 22,000-pound pumps.

Lanyon said the station will be back to a level "that would normally be used in a storm" when eight pumps are restored. He expects that to occur in another week.

Meanwhile, the district's remediation efforts will ensure against more flooding, Lanyon said. The district has opened the gates to the Tunnel and Reservoir System (TARP) to favor the Racine station drainage area.

"Given the capacity of the mainstream tunnel, a 2-inch, 2 1/2-inch rain, we can just swallow up," said Lanyon. "We might have a few more overflows to the river and might increase the risk of backflow to the Lake, but if we don't get a serious rainfall we're in good shape.

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