Fire hydrant Flushing in Portage County

Words By: Julie Riedel

Every spring, the Portage County Department of Water Resources flush Portage County’s fire hydrants.

The fire hydrants are flushed to test the water pressure of the water distribution system. The EPA requires that a water distribution system is tested yearly and has a minimal pressure of 20-pounds per square inch for fire flow conditions. A Portage County water distribution operator who has the Ohio EPA water distribution license conducts these tests.

“We’ve already flushed the transmission main from our facility to Streetsboro, we provide water to the city of Streetsboro as an example, then they continued the very next day, and started flushing into their system,” said Gene Roberts, the director of the Portage County Department of Water Resources. “The process is you flush from the source all the way out. So you don’t trap dirty water, and if it’s flushed right you’ll never have that trapped water it just continues to flow right through.”     

The process of flushing a fire hydrant also cleans out the minerals and other sentiments that have settled in the pipes of the water distribution system.

When a fire hydrant is flushed, that hydrant is operating under unrestricted flow. Under these circumstances, the fire hydrant is able to pull the water in the system fast enough to disrupt the sentiment within the pipes pulling it out of the distribution system. The water is then either directed into a storm water drain, a drainage ditch or sprayed out of a horn to help spread the water out, keeping it from eroding the nearby land.

Flushing does not stop until the water coming out of the fire hydrant is clear. One way the Water Resource Department tests this is by putting some of the flushed water in a white cup and checking for any sentiment. The time it takes to clear a water line depends on the age, type and size of the pipe, as well as how much sentiment had settled inside it.

“It’s a good idea, because it gets rid of anything that’s in there so that the water flows when you need it,” said Marie Schnee, a city of Kent resident.

Flushing fire hydrants is not a waste of water, because it ensures the system runs efficiently and follow regulation, keeping the system from being overly stressed in emergency use. Then, the costs associated with flushing a fire hydrant is built into the costs of processing and disturbing water so it does not cost residents more.

“With today’s commuter models if you have all the correct data in and are constantly updating for new developments being connected to the water distribution grid,” said Roberts. “That provides for a water model and the input to the water model, the newer models will actually give you all kinds of information, one of which is the best method to flush by. So if you think of a grid, when you look at a water distribution system it goes everywhere, which one do you flush first and why because there just isn’t enough water to flush them all simultaneously, so what we do is we use the water model.”

The Safe Drinking Water Act, SDWA, sets the EPA standards for drinking water. It regulates the kinds and amounts of expectable substances in drinking water, as well as set the standards for water testing. SDWA also requires annual water quality reports be published for the public.

Hydrant flushing helps to keep the water lines clean helping to maintain the quality of Portage County’s drinking water. It also provides an opportunity to test Portage County’s water.

“I think water testing is very important because it’s used by everyone, it’s a necessity of life and we want to have clean and sustainable water, we also want to put back out in to the environment clean water too,” said Jessica Wilson, a biologist at the Portage County Department of Water Resources.

The process of flushing does cause inconveniences for residents like low water pressure, discoloration and can even affect the taste and odor of water. Water discoloration is a result of the household truing the water on while a fire hydrant is draining nearby and therefore pulling the disturbed water into their home.

The water is still safe, but the Portage County Department of Water Resources recommends running the water until it turns clear. The water resource department also recommends not doing things like laundry during flushing.

“What inconveniences me more is the fact that they don’t call and say we’re doing this, and give you fair warning, because you could be doing laundry and whites and they come out brown,” said Schnee.

The Portage County Department of Water Resources knows that water line breaks and fire hydrant flushing do inconvenience residents of Portage County and are exploring more advanced notification systems. Currently, the fire hydrant flushing notifications are on the water resources website, run in the local newspapers and signs are posted in the neighborhood being flushed.  

“Water quality is important and I think more people should know where their water comes from and understand it,” said Wilson. “Flushing can be a an inconvenience but it’s definitely a necessary part of having a high quality drinking water at your tap”

 

 

What is fire hydrant flushing, find out in my last and probably the most interesting story I worked on all semester, at https://t.co/pwS1oXhWAO #jmcrpp #portagecounty pic.twitter.com/xxciuZLOnI

— Julie R. (@awkwardlycoffee) May 8, 2018