Water, water, everywhere?

  

Goochland, VA – Goochland County Fire-Rescue’s annual testing and preventative maintenance program for our dry hydrants will begin April 8th, 2019.

They have opted to use a new vendor this year, who will perform all the normal preventative maintenance, plus will send a diver into the water to inspect the piping and strainer. “Cannon’s Service LLC”, owned and operated by Mr. Bobby Cannon of King & Queen County, will be accompanied by one of Fire-Rescue’sEngines to back flush and check the flow rates of the dry hydrants.

The plan is to start in the west end of the county and progress to the east with project completion during the first week of May. Fire-Rescue’s Training, Health & Safety Officer Chan Rowland will be coordinating this year’s project and may be contacted via cell (804) 385-3168 or email crowland@goochlandva.us

You may have seen the above press release distributed by Goochland County this week. No, the term “dry hydrant” is not an oxymoron.

Life in a rural area is different from suburbs in so many ways. Your water comes from a well rather than a waterline maintained by some sort of public utility. If the power goes out in cities and towns, it rarely affects water supply. If you are on a well, however, no power, no water unless your well is wired for connection to a generator.

Blue signs like the one on this mailbox indicate that a dry hydrant is nearby.

Lack of water lines in rural areas poses a serious challenge to firefighters. Every drop of water used to extinguish a blaze must be transported to the scene. Goochland Fire-Rescue has six 2,100-gallon tanker trucks in its apparatus fleet. Those trucks are sometimes filled from fire hydrants in the east end or in Courthouse Village, other times, they attach pumper trucks to dry hydrants to pull water from deep creeks or ponds and fill the tankers. There are dozens of dry hydrants all over Goochland County used for fire suppression. According to county records, the last maintenance check was in October 2017.

The white pipe is the external portion of a dry hydrant that enables connection to a pumper truck.

A dry hydrant is something like a drinking straw. A dry hydrant is a non-pressurized system of piping. One end has a coupling to enable connection to the fire truck.  This is located on firm ground easily accessible by heavy apparatus. The other is located in deep water with a strainer to filter out debris that could clog or damage the pumping mechanism on the pumper truck. To ensure optimal operation, dry hydrants must be inspected and flushed periodically to remove accumulated silt and other possible obstructions.

 

A diagram of a basic dry hydrant