The Death-Star
Rating:1st September 2000

Strictly speaking the Deathstar is not a drain nor is it an above ground feature. It is underground and does feature a connected drain, but it is unique itself. The Deathstar includes a small side drain ID&Q-Bert's that can be accessed from close by.

According to what I've been told, the Deathstar is a feature incorporated into UA City's drainage system to cater for heavy overflows. During heavy rains, storm water can flow into sewers, causing them to back up. The Deathstar's purpose is to mix water from the sewers with chlorine to eradicate pathogens. The treated water is then dumped into the UA City River. The Deathstar seems to be only very seldomly used.

The entrance to the Deathstar is very unassuming. It's simply this little round circular concrete thing in the ground which looks a bit like a feeding trough. The give away is the ladder leading into it.

From the entrance you it is possible to climb down into the Deathstar about seven meters. Need I say that falling from the ladder would not be a very good thing to do. At the level reached we can see further down into the structure below. Around the walls of the small chamber are some strange looking attachments, the purpose of which is beyond me. But, the best is yet to come. In the pictures below you can see a small doorway in the wall. Beyond the door....

Opening the door leads to a stairway that leads down to the Deathstar it's self. The stairway is right on the other side of the door so we had to be careful not to fall down.

The Deathstar is huge! It's circular in shape, about 40 meters across and fourteen meters high. You will soon see how it got it's name. The central circular platform and the extension look a lot like the light sabre fight scene in the Deathstar from the movie 'Star Wars'.

Some of a series of 5 pictures taken in 1996 of the Deathstar using a Minolta 7000 camera

3 drain explorers stand on the platform of the Deathstar. This picture gives you an idea of how big it is, this is only half of it!.	The old light some sparkler dust and let it burn trick is used to light up the Deathstar one night in the summer of 1996
This picture gives a better idea of the size of the Deathstar. Looking from one side to the other, a full 40 meters.	Spray paint can is used as a flare to light up the chamber of the Deathstar showing off the size of the place. It is incredibly huge!

The central platform that extends from the bottom of the stairs to the wall of the Deathstar has a few small hatches in it. At the wall stairs lead down to the floor of the Deathstar. The layer of gunk on the ground is in fact quite thin, and barely covers the concrete floor.

Resting in the Deathstar during an all nighter

We had to l ook out for the open hatch under the stairway. It lead down to a lower drainage passage. This passage in turn lead to a sump which is essentially the outflow of the Deathstar. From this passageway we could crawl into the lower center section of the Deathstar and look up twenty or more meters to the central vent where we came in.

Upper drain.

Found only recently this small drain is part of the Deathstar system. It is in fact the outflow from the Deathstar. The drain is hard to locate.

This drain, though slippery is worth taking a look at after exploring the Deathstar. It has some massive overflow doors visible, as well as a great view into the Deathstar itself. It goes without saying that if the Deathstar is filled with water that a trip down this tunnel would be suicide.

Do NOT enter drains. Read this warning!

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