Penetration Diving

Commercial Diver Preston Pelfrey prepares for penetration dive.

A crane is used to lower the diver 30 feet underground.Diver being lowered through manway

Commercial dive crew inspects a river intake.  Read more about thi8s Job on the right side of the page under Penetration Dive.

Over 150 feet of pipeline leading to the pumps was inspected to confirm the pumps were not blocked in any way.

Diver lowered through manway

Diver being lowered to the water

Diver being lowered to the water using line air & Surface to diver communication. The divers mike is open allowing the rest of the crew to hear him breath as he inspects the intake submerged in the turbulant river water allowing zero visability.

This is a touch and feel inspection that will confirm nothing was left in the pipe during construction.

Commercial divers are availabe for a wide veriety of inland diving projects.

What is Penetration diving?  According to Wikipedia.  “Penetration diving or no clear surface diving is a type of diving where the scuba diver enters a space from which there is no direct, purely vertical ascent to the safety of breathable air of the atmosphere at the surface. Several types of dive meet this condition: cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving or diving other man-made, underwater structures or enclosures.

The fact that the diver cannot immediately ascend to breathe from the atmosphere at the surface makes this type of diving much more risky than the usual types recreational diving or open-water diving.

It is essential that divers doing penetration dives are specially equipped and trained in technical diving techniques such as:

• using redundant diving cylinders ” End Quote.

Our divers are equiped with an umbilical that supplies air and communications, he is also wearing a bail out bottle that provides a completely seperate system to breathe from should the “Line Air” fail on any way.

When doing a penetration dive or diving in a confined space like a water storage tank it is important not only to have the right equipment but to have the right person to do the job.

Divers may be useful on the raw water and potable water side of the water plant.

To dive potable water the divers wear a dry suit that is purchased for and only used in Potable water.  The diver and equipment are then washed down with a 200 ppm chlorins solution.  This allows the diver to enter the potable water storage tanks to inspect and clean tanks & towers.

For information on potable water diving see www.ronperrin.com

Also see www.tankdiver.us