Great Barrington — I’ve never given much thought to fire hydrants beyond noting those tender moments when my dog is wooed by their charms. Yet I take comfort in knowing we have them. In fact, I am so comforted by them that I forget all about them until spring, when a few people fiddle with the one across the street. As it turns out, they are testing it to make sure it will work in the unfortunate event we all need it to.
I didn’t give much thought to the matter of hydrants, pressure, or gallons per minute until last week, when, at one of a series of joint meetings where the town’s 2016 budget was unveiled department by department, section by section, line by line. We came around to the Fire Department; one quarter of its budget goes towards “the right to use hydrants,” as Fire Chief Charles Burger put it.
And midway through the Chief’s discussion of his budget, he brought up hydrants and how the largest increase in his budget this year is for hydrant rental costs, up to a projected $93,000 from $92,279 spent last year. The reason, he said, is that Housatonic Water Works Company (HWWCO), the private company that pumps water into Housatonic proper, may ask the Department of Public Utilities for a rate increase of 15 percent this year.
At that moment, Selectboard Member and Housatonic resident Dan Bailly casually asked the Chief who maintained Housatonic’s hydrants. The Chief said it was the responsibility of HWWCO, but that the fire department did not have a “written contract” with the company for maintenance.
Quasi-municipal Great Barrington Fire District Water Department takes care of Great Barrington’s hydrants, for instance, making sure they are clear of snow, maintained and tested. But as for Housatonic’s hydrants, the Chief left enough of a question mark wafting through the fire station meeting room that it prompted Bailly — with a nervous grin — to ask the Chief, “can we get some sort of maintenance agreement with [HWWCO]?”
Great Barrington Fire Chief Charles Burger addressing the Selectboard and Finance Committee last week.
Burger said his department encouraged Housatonic residents to “adopt a hydrant,” making those present wonder — and worry — about orphaned hydrants, and what that might mean if there were a fire.
It was enough to make me pick up the phone.
Chief Burger said he would only say this: “I think the maintenance of hydrants, and making sure they are working, is extremely important for the protection of the community.”
He was also willing to say this: Housatonic hydrants flow at a rate of 500 gallons per minute. Great Barrington hydrants push out 1,500 to 4,000 gallons per minute.
Offices of the Housatonic Water Works Company, on Maple Avenue in Great Barrington.
“You can’t compare the two towns,” said Jim Mercer, president of HWWCO. “They are different systems designed for different pressures.” He said most mains in Housatonic were installed in the 1890s to1900s during the industrial revolution and in response to the Great Chicago Fire, a conflagration that lasted for two days and killed hundreds.
There is a good reason why a Housatonic resident might fret about hydrants. Housatonic’s Central Block was decimated — for a second time — by fire in April 1960, according to Bernard A. Drew’s Great Barrington: Great Town, Great History. The property loss from the fire hit the $100,000 mark, even after “seven fire companies fought the blaze, which started in the store of William Lennon and spread to an adjacent structure,” all right across the street from the fire station, according to Drew.
“Fireman experienced water flow problems…water had to be drawn from the Housatonic River,” Drew wrote. And the Deputy Fire Chief at the time, Paul M. Baumann Sr. said “that fire was a doozer…we could use only one hydrant. If you used more than one, it stole from the first.”
“Fire Chief Edward C. Vigeant decried the lack of water in Housatonic,” and HWWCO was criticized, Drew said, “for maintaining too-small lines in the village and not meeting insurance rating standards.”
According to Drew, Baumann later said that water problems in the village “had been eased somewhat in recent years by the installation of dry hydrants at the river near the Macano Inn and near the old Monument Mills complex. Another is planned near Rising Paper.”
The Housatonic Fire Station.
When asked how much trouble it would be to replace the mains to hold more water, Mercer said increasing pressure is a complicated issue with profusion of variables to consider. “We have 16 miles of pipe of all different sizes, and different pressure out of different sizes of pipe…it is a long-term issue.” Right now, he said there is 110 pounds of pressure throughout the system.
As for hydrants, “we paint, check valves, exercise them, replace parts.” His company does the maintenance in the spring when they also flush the mains. Given the winter we’ve had, I asked about freezing. Mercer explained that when the hydrants are deactivated, the water drains off the stem, so there is no potential for freezing. “Periodically, we had ones that didn’t drain,” he said, and those can freeze.
Mercer also said that there are regulatory standards for hydrants. “There are standards for everything,” he said. “Waterworks is a very regulated industry, as it should be.”
The age of Housatonic’s hydrants varies. Some date back to 1900, Mercer said, but his company replaced hydrants on a number of streets in the 1980s to late 1990s.
HWWCO charges the fire department $575.40 annually for each of its 58 public hydrants producing a flow of 250 GPM or more, and $462.96 for hydrants with a flow of 150 GPM and less than 250 gallons or more per minute. The Great Barrington Water District charges $57.75 per quarter for each of its 250 public hydrants.
Housatonic still has a fire station. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder, is the lesser water flow from Housatonic’s hydrants still a problem during a fire? Does that mean the department has to bring in special equipment?
“We use an engine regardless,” Chief Burger said. “For a minor fire [Housatonic’s] gallons per minute is adequate — for anything major, they’re not. It would require thousands of feet of hose and multiple engines, and a delayed response. It would require a lot of manpower and laying in from the [Housatonic] river.” Using river water is something Burger said would be necessary in Great Barrington only if there were “a catastrophic water system failure.”
The Park Street hydrant, serving the Rubin Mill and the former Barbieri Lumber Co. office.
And what would it take to increase the gallons per minute flow of Housatonic’s hydrants?
“It has little to do with hydrant itself,” Burger said. “It has to do with water pressure and size of water mains. In Housatonic, the static water pressure is fine, but flow through the system is not adequate.” Burger said the same thing Mercer did about replacing water mains to increase pressure: “Upgrading that can be fairly complicated.”
When asked about the rate hike Burger had budgeted for, Mercer said it would be “premature” for him to comment on it. “I don’t know the exact number yet. It’s been 7 years since we set a rate increase.” Mercer said the 15 to 20 percent hike would account for “basic inflation.” Mercer said he’d “have better numbers in the next couple of months.”
Aside from regular overhead costs, Mercer said his company has “substantial electric usage because of our pumps.” Also, he said, “there have been changes and new testing for safe water rules.” The state he added, “is making a push to look at infrastructure, prioritize projects, and start programs to upgrade mains…we’re looking at funding.”
The only mystery left is that no one knows who is officially in charge of plowing and clearing snow around a Housatonic hydrant. Chief Burger didn’t know, Mercer didn’t know, and when asked, Department of Public Works Director Joseph Sokul said he didn’t know, adding that the DPW does not involve itself in water company-related business.
I got in the car and drove around the village; it was clear that someone was removing snow from around hydrants, and unless some were buried, the hydrants I saw appeared to have been adopted.
I mentioned all of this to Dan Bailly. “I saw a volunteer fire-fighter clearing one,” he said, possibly solving the great mystery.
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