Flushing schedule changed

Dirty water complaints prompt fire department to change maintenance plans

“Our entire purpose is to serve the citizens of Lorain. Your concerns do not fall on deaf ears.”

— Jim Malick, superintendent of water distribution in the Lorain Utilities Department

After flushing fire hydrants apparently has caused dirty water around Lorain, the Fire Department will change the schedule for firefighters to maintain the hydrants.

This year, the city administration has received complaints that fire hydrant flushing is causing residents to get dirty water out of the taps in their homes.

On Aug. 28, Lorain fire Chief Matt Homolya published a statement explaining the process of testing fire hydrants.

With many hydrants already tested this year, it is too late to reschedule how the fire crews examine the city’s fire plugs, Homolya said.

However, next year shifts will be different as firefighters concentrate on specific areas of the city and notify residents about flushing.

As water flows out of the fire hydrants, the action may loosen

residual materials that accumulate over time inside water mains, said Jim Malick, superintendent of water distribution in the Lorain Utilities Department.

“It’s safe,” he said. “All the water’s been treated already. This is just the residuals in the system that get stirred up when they flush.”

Residents should run their water faucets until the water runs clear. If it does not become clear in five to 10 minutes, residents can call water distribution at 440-204-2285 and city crews can check for turbidity.

Flushing the hydrants is necessary to ensure fire protection, he said.

But he acknowledged the situation may be frustrating when residents put in a load of white laundry to wash and it comes out dirty.

“Our entire purpose is to serve the citizens of Lorain,” the chief said in Aug. 28 statement. “Your concerns do not fall on deaf ears.”

Starting next year, a specific area or neighborhood in each fire district will be designated for hydrant flushing for a period of time.

All crews in that district will be assigned to that particular area until all those hydrants are complete.

Once an area or neighborhood is complete, all the crews in that district then will start working in the next designated area and so on, until all the hydrants in that fire district are complete, Homolya said.

All the designated areas will be listed on the city’s webpage in the order in which they will be completed, he said.

“We will attempt to give approximate time frames for completion of each area, but it will be subject to change due to the very nature of our business and other unforeseen factors,” Homolya said. “We will post signs near the main roads going into each area to indicate flushing is in progress, and citizens will also be able to receive alerts via email or text by signing up for notifications on the city website.”

For the current process, generally three crews from the four stations would fan out over the city to test the hydrants from May to October, Homolya said.

The firefighters look for visible wear and damage to the hydrants and they open the valves to ensure water flow is adequate, the chief said.

Lorain has about 3,000 fire hydrants, so it is a timeconsuming process, Homolya said.

Firefighters also deal with variables in their daily schedules, he said.

They must respond to calls about fires, but there also is training and sometimes water main breaks prevent the testing, the chief said.

Depending on the conditions, crews may test 60 hydrants in a day, or they may get to only 50 over two weeks, Homolya said, using the numbers as examples.

Firefighters use meters to measure the hydrant flow at least once every five years, he said.

Hydrants that are considered out of service have the top, called the bonnet, painted red, and they are logged in a book and via computerized map, Homolya said.

He credited the city Utilities Department for quick repairs to the waterlines when needed.

To extinguish a house fire, a crew will start an attack with hand-held hoses that have a flow of about 150 gallons a minute.

To use two of those and keep one for backup, hydrants need a flow of at least 500 gallons of water per minute to be considered adequate, Homolya said.

Most of the city’s working hydrants have water flow between 500 and 1,000 gallons per minute, the chief said.

In commercial areas, hydrants may flow up to 1,500 gallons a minute.

The city tower and aerial fire trucks have nozzles capable of spraying 1,500 gallons a minute.

In a fire, the department likes to use those at a flow of about 1,000 gallons a minute, Homolya said.

By contrast, the chief estimated most outdoor spigots and garden hoses for home use would flow at about five gallons per minute.

Water distribution crews also do pipe flushing that is separate from the hydrant testing, Malick said. Crews will close valves and increase the rate of flow to three feet per second, which scours the inside of the water mains, he said.