5th level, northwest corner at water level, unknown pipe
looking down shaft from level 2
"Missile Base Road Crew"
" Hi again. I'm happy to say we made progress on the latest visit to your silo. After Tim unlocked the stairway door, we proceeded in and found quite a bit of moisture ( drops dripping from the ceiling) in the stairway & hallway. Water had accumulated at the bottom of the stairs to a depth of about 6 inches (15 cm), basically the same height as when you first bought the site. Tim thought it was from the moisture on the walls & ceiling, but I thought it was a combination of that and natural seepage through the walls/floor. I wouldn't get discouraged by it because I think ventilation will prevent most if not all of it when you fix up the living quarters. After we moved on to the living quarters everything was the same as when you left it. In the living quarters there were moisture drops on the ceiling. Again something that will be gone when you resume ventilation.
Text by Neil Walker
"Proceeding through the tunnel we noticed water accumulated there again, but it wasn't over the small blast door laying on the floor (situation appeared to be normal to me). Once we had power, Tim set up the small pump in the stairway hallway to drain it and discharge the water into the tunnel area. After awhile of setting the light tree up and getting the tools down to the 3rd evel, I noticed water dripping from an electrical conduit protruding from the silo wall directly above the valve, increase from a few drops to finally apowrful stream ( as if coming from a garden hose)! At first I was a little discouraged as I thought maybe a chunk of rust had broken loose from the conduit alowing (another) outside water source into the silo. Tim was the first to realize it was probably a result of the tunnel gaining additional water from the sump pump discharge and thats where the other end of the conduit originated. Sure enough, thats what it was. We found the pipe and with a makeshift method sealed it. Now we could begin work on the valve".
"Disassembling the valve top went smoothly. Had a couple of close calls almost dropping the wrenches! After opening the valve up, we found corrosion chunks had accumulated in the back half of it where you & I couldn't close it. The pin on the gate part of the valvestem had sheared where the shaft went through it. We tried to pound out the old pin, but couldn't get it cause I think (being made of brass) it mushroomed itself tight in the valve stem. Without spending extra time getting the drill setup to drill it out (didn't bring one) we tried pounding the remainder of the pins into the gate hoping they'd catch enough to close the valve the rest of the way. So we cleaned the parts up, applied gasket sealant to the gasket and gate, putting everything back together only to find out the pins didn't hold. After some pondering, I thought if I could disconnect the nut from the housing, it would allow the valve stem to slide in the rest of the way. As luck would have it, it worked."
"What a strange sensation that was listening to the silence afterwards! After that, Tim & I went to the lower levels to take some pictures for you. tried the video camera first, but quickly gave up on that cause, the lens had fogged from being stored in the jeep. So I switched to the still camera which was okay. The water level is just below the 5th level floor. I had brought my infrared temperature dector, and found the water to be around 48 degress. The temperature in the rest of the silo was mostly around 50 degress. It was comfortable and a heck of a lot warmer than outside."
