Hit television show visits Hurricane Barrier during dewatering  

Television host Mike Rowe checks the gas meter before entering the hole. (Courtesy photo)

Mar. 30, 2007

By Christopher D. Way
New England District

One rainy August morning, Steven "Patch" Patchkofsky, Naugatuck River Basin environmental compliance coordinator, approached me with an idea.

"Hey, you know that show Dirty Jobs?" he said. Of course I knew it.  It is one of my favorite shows.

"Yeah, I love that show," I replied. 

Steve continued, "Well, I have got this idea..."

If you have ever watched this celebration of mess and muck on the Discovery Channel, you will note that at the end of the program, Mike Rowe, show host, asks viewers if they have any "dirty jobs" that would be of interest. Patch had a great idea.

He proposed to have Dirty Jobs participate in the dewatering/inspection of the navigation gate at the Stamford Hurricane Barrier, located in Stamford, Conn. The rest is history.

Then again, making history is never easy. 

Taking advantage of the long Columbus Day holiday, New England District team members, Navy divers and the crew and host of Dirty Jobs arrived at the Stamford Hurricane Barrier to begin documenting one of the dirtiest jobs in New England - the dewatering of the hurricane barrier. 

The dewatering process takes about 15 hours. Also, there are two days worth of site preparation and a day or two after for closeout work.  This process is done twice every five years.

For the filming of Dirty Jobs, the work involved the inspection and replacement of cathodic protection/sacrificial anodes and underwater inspections of portions of the gate.  Crews from the U.S. Army 511th Dive Unit from Fort Eustis, Va., and New England District team members performed the work.  The show aired Dec. 12, 2006

The barrier was built in 1969 to protect the residents and to date has saved the public $26 million in damages.