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[Ihtomyt]

I set up some pumps to do some desalination and strengthen some dwarves, near the ocean. It looked like this (x = pump, ^ = channel, 6 = 7 deep water with a ramp, 7 = 7 deep water)

^^^^^^
^^^^^^
^         ^
^         ^
x          x
x          x
6          6
7 7 7 7 7

One stack of pumps was facing into the ocean, the other out. The pump operator working on the pumps facing into the ocean arrived first, and there was some water already in there from waves, and was happily pumping there. As soon as the other operator arrived at the pump to bring water in, he drowned almost instantly. I am not really sure what happened, if it was because of the pumps, or if he fell in for some other reason. Dwarves have been fishing around this coastline for months with no falling in, so I assume it is because of the pump. I have to admit, I have never really used pumps before, I am still new to the game in terms of hours played and always dealt with aquifers through the plug method or going around. I am very confused how this setup seems to have flooded the operator off the edge behind him. I'm sure I did something wrong, but I don't understand what. Hopefully this all makes sense and someone can impart the wisdom of how to set up pumps safely.

[Leonidas]

From your drawing, it looks like you put both pumps on the same z-level. The pump with its butt in the channel was able to move water, and the dwarf was protected from the water that he was generating. The second pump was backwards and nonfunctional. The dwarf stood there, running the pump but not moving any water, while the water from the first pump poured in and drowned him.

Pumps are not intuitive, but the wiki gives a thorough explanation. This picture shows the aspect of pumps that drowned your dwarf:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

BTW, if you just want dwarves to use pumps as workout machines, you don't need any water at all. You can build them anywhere and dwarves will pump away on them.

[Quarque]

Military training is far more effective for training strength. They don't need any weapons or armor; even if you just train them as wrestlers they will soon max out strength, agility, toughness and endurance. As a bonus they gain fighting skills and discipline, which helps them to deal with corpses.

[PatrikLundell]

Pumping water with no drainage is dangerous, because the pumped water sloshes around, which can push dorf in various directions, including into the water of adjacent. It's possible for a single pump operator to move water around enough to interrupt his own pumping if the setup isn't done carefully (I've had incidents of this kind when trying to clear away water to recover corpses etc. in water tiles, relying on the pumped water to flow back into the water on its own).

[Ihtomyt]

...

I am trying hard to understand, but not quite there yet. I'm 100% certain the pumps were facing the correct directions (or at least I mean the directions I intended). The pump on the left was facing so water would flow from the channel into the ocean. When the operator was pumping, I could see the water flowing out. The pump on the right was facing so that the water would flow from the ocean into the channel and we know what happened next. Both pumps were at the same z-level yes. I am trying to understand why that is wrong. I saw the picture you posted before, but shouldn't then the water flow down from there into the channel? I had it set up like this from the side view:

1 = water flowing out of pump (I thought?), 7 = ocean, X = ground, % = pump, ^ = channel with water in it

Left pump:
1%%
7XX^^^

Right pump:
  %%1
7XX^^^

So basically the right pump diagram is like the picture from the wiki, but with a channel underneath where it is flowing out. Would the water not then flow down from the output space into the channel below? Instead it seemed to flood backwards and knocked the dwarf into the ocean (I think, it happened so fast I'm not sure).

...

The primary reason wasn't the attributes, but to desalinate the ocean until I can get my aquifer wells set up in the underground. The attribute training was just a bonus. I am sure I'm not going about things like a pro, because I'm not, but I didn't expect the water to flow out of the channel like that.

...

I'm going to be much more paranoid building these from now on. I didn't realize it was even possible for the water to occupy the outside of the pump in the space of the pump before trying this. What would make it safe? I was thinking to build walls around it with access through a door (forbidden after the operator is inside) next to the pump, and a grate and a floodgate on each side of the pump... but then would the dwarf just drown in the box I just put him in instead? Any suggestions on how to make it safe?

[PatrikLundell]

Boxing the pump operator in behind a closed door will keep the water out and the operator in. There shouldn't be any risk of drowning in the water sloshing around from pumps, as that water would reach 2/7 at the most (assuming it's not in a small enclosed space), so the danger is not drowning, but being dragged away or knocked out by things pushed around (I've had logs cause serious injuries), and being dragged out onto deep water may well result in drowning there.

Note that you can't desalinate the ocean. Once the purified water returns to the ocean it gets salty again, and there are no levels to be adjusted. You can desalinate water and send it to a cistern or dam, however (both ought to have a depth of 2 Z levels to allow the dorfs to avoid the muddy bottom level water).

[Moeteru]

Pumps in DF can move a ridiculously huge amount of water in a very short amount of time. If you don't put walls around the output side, you're almost inevitably going to get water spilling out and pushing the pump operator around. You should always make sure the output is watertight, even if you think you've built adequate drainage.

If you want to build a desalination system, put a wall around the output tank and don't try to pump your desalinated water back into the ocean.
If you just want to train pump operators, you don't need to be anywhere near water.

[Ihtomyt]

Aha, ok, so that's probably (definitely) the primary thing I did wrong, though maybe not the only thing... the output channel should have had walls and ceiling. I guess the risk of stuff knocking the operator around can't be entirely helped, but I can also add walls/grates/doors behind and around the pump to keep them from being thrown into the ocean at least. Thanks for that everyone! I feel dumb not knowing water would flow out over the top if not contained, but I had no idea how much water was being moved!

As for desalinating the ocean, I of course didn't mean desalinating the entire ocean I just meant desalinating water from it. I was pumping it back in so I had the ability to drain the cistern if I wanted. My diagram is not complete, there was a cistern in between the channels.

[Leonidas]

Oh, so the second pump was for drainage! Now it starts to make more sense.

If you want to get rid of water, don't just dump it back onto the ocean, or anywhere onto the surface. That would get messy. You're better off thinking downwards:
1) Drain it off the screen, through a fortification edge tile.
2) Drain it into a cavern, where it'll flow into an underground lake or off the screen.
3) Drain it into a room that'll atom-smash it with a drawbridge.
4) Drain it into the magma sea.
5) Drain or pump it into a heavy aquifer, if available.

It's good that you're thinking about how to drain the cistern, but you don't need to build the whole drainage system at the start. Just put a down staircase at the bottom of the cistern, block it with a bridge, and hook the bridge to a lever. If later you actually need to drain the cistern, then you can dig whatever pipes you want underneath that bridge, and open the drain when you're ready.

And drainage shouldn't be a constant thing in your fort, because all that fluid motion will kill your FPS.

[Moeteru]

Don't forget the option of using a minecart for drainage.
Build a track stop set to dump in the direction of an adjacent wall, then put a minecart on it. If the water level gets above 5/7 the minecart will destroy any excess.
It also works for magma if you use a magma-proof minecart.

[PatrikLundell]

Another "drainage" method is to let water flow out into a sufficiently large room to evaporate. I do that accidentally from time to time when the room I intend to flood with water up to some level (e.g. for magma sea obsidianization purposes) is too large (can be fixed by during off the input, build walls to restrict the water to a suitable area, flood, do the work, rebuild the walls so water is redirected to the other half, flood).

[knutor]

You can keep going up further with it, and make a mist generator, or a flusher trap. Or as water trickles back down, spin a waterwheel to crack some nuts.

I place two screw pumps in my high quality artifact room, so the dorfs riding there, to improving their endurance, can also watch out for villains.