The site of Rome is said to have been chosen because it was the most favorable spot in the river Tiber. But the exploding population strained the river beyond its limits, prompting the Romans to constantly dig for new ideas to keep the city’s need for water satisfied.
The 39th Annual Tri-State Seminar, held at the prestigious South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa in Las Vegas, Nevada, has concluded as an extraordinary triumph! Standing among the exhibitors was Hydrant Guard, who fully embraced the spirit of Las Vegas with the theme “Don’t Gamble With Water.” Our team loves to go all-in to match the theme of each Tri-State Seminar, and this year was no exception.
Innovative water management practices have sprung up all over the world in different forms, influenced by local hydrological and hydrogeological conditions. Every new settlement, town or city, demands an understanding of how local water sources work, including how to exploit and protect them. And this is no less important today than it was in the past.
Some of the oldest water management inventions are wells for drawing on underground sources, and cisterns and reservoirs for collecting rainwater and snowmelt. But there are other more surprising examples from past civilizations that continue to astound us today.
Throughout recorded history, water has played a sacred role in diverse cultures around the world. Springs, rivers, and rain have been worshipped for their role in safeguarding the ties that keep communities together. And just as an abundance of water can bring peace to a warring region, the consequences of water sources drying up and the devastation of drought are infamous destroyers of civilizations.
After its first major fire in 1851, a San Francisco foundry began casting wet-barrel hydrants. A century later, Greenberg’s collaboration with water districts all over California had forever united hydrant engineering with municipal water management. But that didn’t mean the water providers and customers could live happily ever after. First, we needed assurance that the products storing and purveying water were safe, and that they functioned as a cohesive system. In short, the water industry needed regulation.
Walnut Valley Water District (WVWD) has been serving their community for over 70 years. From a humble start managing groundwater connections for less than 1000 residents, to serving over 100,000 today, WVWD has continuously expanded their infrastructure to keep pace with the growing population. Today, they boast 500 miles of distribution mains, 31 reservoirs, 17 pump plants, and nearly 100,000,000 gallons of storage capacity.
Teofilo Pasillas is the Operations Manager at Walnut Valley Water District (WVWD). Before joining the CA water world, Teo spent 4 years in the Marine Corps. For him, the waterworks industry is just as satisfying and exciting as the years he enjoyed as a Marine.
The Las Vegas Tri-State Seminar has grown into a major event in the water industry calendar, and it keeps getting better (and bigger). This year’s event hosted 4,400 attendees, an increase of over 1,000 attendees from 2022. The theme was “Weird Science: Predicting and Protecting Human Health and the Environment.” With no holds barred (and all valves checked) the Hydrant Guard team went all-in for the show.
Gabriel Gomez, Operations Manager at Liberty Utilities, knows all too well how to identify a hydrant ‘knockoff.’ For a man who’s dealt with the problems caused by knockoffs for over 25 years, putting an end to emergencies from water surges has been long overdue.
After more than 30 years in the water industry, Danny Aceves knows how things work on (and under) the ground. Since his promotion to Distribution Supervisor for the City of Pomona, he’s been tasked, among other priorities, with a bigger challenge: how to protect city assets and private property from broken hydrants.
Danny’s team deals with a hydrant shear roughly once every ten days. The vast majority of hydrant shears don’t make the news (in 15 years at Pomona, Danny hasn’t seen a single one picked up in the media). He considers this fortunate but doesn’t take it for granted.
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