Flushing for fire safety

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

May 15, 2008 06:06 pm

— Pauls Valley’s firefighters will soon get started on a routine that has one goal in mind — make sure that local fire protection is at a high mark.
The downside to checking local hydrants and flushing lines is the unwelcome murkiness that tends to come when the water is stirred up in this manner.
It appears to be the price of protection as work is expected to start the week of Monday, May 19 and keep going until all of PV’s water system has been checked out in terms of fire protection.
“I want people to know the reason we’re doing this is to make sure every single fire hydrant in Pauls Valley is working,” PV Fire Chief Joe Eddy said.
“This is a maintenance deal.”
More specifically, crews of firefighters will be providing full maintenance to all hydrants.
Included in those duties is a complete flushing of water lines throughout the entire town over the next couple of months or so.
The problem there is the unintended aftermath in the form of a temporary discoloration in the local water supply.
That likely means local residents will see some occasional and annoying periods of brownish water as they turn on their faucets.
“It will stir it up and they’ll have dirty water,” Eddy said.
“Anytime we use a hydrant it stirs up the water. Anytime you’ve got lines that are 15, 20 years old you’re going to see that,” he said.
“It’s usually cleaned up within 24 hours.”
Although Eddy says the dirty water isn’t dangerous he does suggest residents delay washing their clothes when the line flushing begins and dirty water shows up on their side of town.
Firefighters are expected to work a couple of hours on weekdays starting on the east side of PV.
From there they will go on a slow sweep of the town as ever single fire hydrant will be checked out.
The typical site will have firefighters pulling up to hydrants, taking the caps off, which will later be greased, and then checking out the whole thing to make sure it works OK.
During the whole process lines are flushed with a strong flow of water — something that breaks up sediment in the lines and causes the dirty water on a temporary basis.
After all that is done the hydrant will get a fresh coat of paint and firefighters move on to the next one.
The entire project is expected to last somewhere in the neighborhood of two months.