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.
Over 200 vendors and 1,000 attendees joined us at the Water Wise Pro Maintenance & Construction Expo in Pleasanton, CA last week. The Hydrant Guard + Advanced Conservation Management touched base with existing customers and friends, and made dozens of new connections among attendees. A special shout out goes to Steve Hernandez of WaterWisePro for putting on this event.
Until 1850, hydrant innovation focused on dry-barrel designs that worked well in the cold. But California’s climate called for different types of fire hydrants.
San Francisco was reeling from a destructive blaze in 1851. At that time, there were no fire insurance companies: what was lost in the fire was lost forever. The city didn’t even have underground water networks. A new series of projects topped the municipal agenda: digging wells, channeling water, and casting hydrants. They just needed the right manufacturer for the job: who would step up?
Getting water out of the ground remained an unsolved problem in 1800, despite all the advances in underground infrastructure; firefighters had either to plunge buckets in the nearest cistern or dig down to perforate the wooden mains that conveyed water before metal pipes.
Before the invention of hydrants, the first brigade on scene tore up the ground until they reached the wooden water main, pierced it open and flooded the dugout around the puncture. From this makeshift pool the brigade filled buckets and attached hoses. After the fire, they closed the hole in the main with a plug, and it was these plugs that gave rise to the hydrant’s original name: fireplug.
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