Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Dry Hydrants in ponds

Seems like almost anger in the air about a dry hydrant. Its up to you. I am a Chief of a semi rural 109 sq mile fire District with half city hydrants. The other half is tanked. We do have dry hydrants that we use. They are great for us. The set up is quick and easy. If you do not have a dry hydrant, we still can't use your pond without a road. That is what we need doing a fire, accessable water. We have to have input before you install one. Access is everything. We will help you place it so the connection is on the correct side of out truck. The truck at the pond will stay there and pump water to the main road with a large hose. We will tell you what fitting to use for us to hook up to. Your home owner insurance is based on many things. One of them is distance to the closest hydrant. Now for the down side. We can completely drain a small pond, and yes we have done so. At best we can really stir things up. If its your house we save, so what. But would you give up your pond water and kill your fish for an empty barn down the road? Like I said, its up to you. I can not build a road to my pond so I do not have one. If I could afford the road, yes, for sure I would have one.

Good post, Tom.. My/our biggest concern is for range fires. It's hard to get enough water to make a difference there. For the most part, the local Volunteers and cities let the brush burn and try to get water to save houses.

I remember one local retiree who built a house right in the middle of the trees and brush. He wouldn't allow the FD to doze down his precious trees during a 40 mph wind. As the fire kept coming closer, he kept saying the wind would shift . After the fire, the trees came back beautifully. His house was a total loss. Guess who he blamed?

Tom...
Thanks for the "no bones about it" approach. I appreciate your delivery.
Our pond project is about 2200 feet from the county road, winding thru the woods. This driveway was created by and can handle long semi-dumpers that weigh in at 70,000# + gross wt. I see no issue with the weight capacity, but the distance may preclude my participation in community efforts based on your description of "how it's normally done". During community assist, I kinda envisioned providing a place for the tankers to fill up, turn around, and head back to the fire scene. If the pond comes together the way I hope, we will be pushing 4 - 5 ac with avg depth around 8 - 10 ft. As long as it ain't down too far, it would be hard to put a severe dent it it...or am I nutz?

Brettski, if you have a turn around at the pond for tankers to use, we would not lay a line back to the road. The key is a good turn around. As for the water, a tanker shuttle operation would not hurt your pond. The pond that I said we drained, was about 1 acre 8 feet deep. We drafted at the dry hydrant and pumped to a ladder truck pumping about 1000gpm. Large fire, direct hose lay, not tankers. Good luck, hope you never need a fireman.

I'm not too concerned about draining the pond. It'll be 1.2 acres, and average depth @ 8 feet, with about half over 14 feet. Plenty of water.

I used to be on the volunteer dept. in town, and we always were looking for water sources, especially during the spring grassfire season. Fire chief is one of my best friends, so he's all for it. I dropped off the paperwork for him to get started on Friday.

The pond lays only about 75 feet from my driveway. They'll probably have to lay out a short gravel drive from my lane to the hydrant. As long as they are already on it, and pipe is relatively cheap, I'll suggest they dig the pipe trench an extra 30 feet or so and put the hydrant as close to the existing lane as possible. It'll be easier for them to turn around in the barn lot and not have to do any backing at all.

That's the way I'm envisioning the project, but I'll let the dept and the plumbers have as much input as they want. I've got acreage to spare, so they can put it wherever it's convenient for them. That'll make for a good Monday meeting on some nice night. They can all load up in the trucks and come out to have a "group think" on where it makes the most sense.

I hope they use it every year...had a grass fire less than 1 mile from my place week before last, and they were shuttling water from the closest city hydrant...about 3 miles away.

You're a good neighbor, Matt....

Thanks Brettski. Sucks not to have enough wet stuff when you're in the middle of the red stuff. Might even be me they're helping someday... :p

...so, when I found a pile of 6" PVC pipe on Ebay and bought it for the dam drain, I knew I was gonna have alot of it left over. I also knew that if I am gonna put in a dry hydrant, now is the time. The tough part is done.


We used 45 degree fittings to make the uphill bend. This was recommended from a few different articles I read on dry hydrants. The thought process is that if there is difficulty in connecting to the hydrant fitting (frozen, stripped, wrong size or fitting, whatever), the pipe can be hacked off behind the fitting and a suction hose can be slipped into the balance of the pipe, slipping past the 45's and into the static water level.


The horizontal run is 100 ft and the uphill at 45 degrees is a 20 footer, much of which will get trimmed back when I get to the final 45 degree elbow and terminal fitting.

The equipment is parked on the building site; there is still about 4 more feet of fill going in this area. To the far right, between the temporary pile of rocks and the pipe, is the boat launch road. The draw end of the pipe enters the pond off the front of the building site. This lands the dry hydrant directly between the boat launch and the building site.

Well Brettski, I'm glad it's working for you...not so good on this end.

Chief wantsa do it...I'm more than willing to let them and they can use whatever space the need. Unfortunately, the just bought a new pumper at $300k...they think they can't afford the $1000 it would take to do this right, so they're just letting it go for now...seems kinda short sighted to me.

I'm not in the position to fork out $$$ for this project just now...might be out of a job in the next few months...so I guess it dies. This, despite the fact that the fed's will pay for more than half of it...

Told them if they wanta do it, now's the time. This time next year the pond may be full and the grass around it will be in great shape...momma may not wanna see it all tore up again. Dunno...we'll see what happens.

...a little more progress on the dry hydrant installation.
As part of the boat launch concrete pours, we swiped a little bit of the concrete to finish off the intake end of the dry hydrant.
(ref; the launch-dock construction thread
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Since I neglected to think of drilling the hole for the small concrete pier required to stabilize the dry hydrant support rod, it became a "clamshell hole digger" project. I got down about 20" and hit clay that I could barely scrape with the cutting edges of the digger. This is gonna have to do...(sarcasm; it will be an excellent foundation for this little project).
The dry hydrant unit has optional holes drilled top and bottom near the end of it to accommodate a 1" diameter support rod. I wanted to use a non-corrosive metal for longevity. Stainless was too pricey. Then I searched for aluminum with elevated anti-corrosion properties. I found the best deal on-line. I picked up a pc of 6061, 1" x 144" for about $40. They cut it in half and UPS'd it to me.
We glued the final fittings, filled the foundation hole with concrete, and set the aluminum rod.
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The strainer unit is supported on the rod with a hard rolled stainless strap that exhibits spring properties. PB brethren, Tom Bingham, provided helpful guidance in selecting a strainer unit that also incorporates a spring-loaded back flush end-cap.
When the concrete cures, the support rod get trimmed. The soil just below the strainer holes will be trimmed down a bit, also. Then, all the exposed PVC components get a splash of latex paint to ward off UV damage.

I have found some interresting reading on this subject. So I thought I would share.

http://www.pcoem.org/dry%20hydrant.htm

Some insurance companies will give you a break on your fire insurance premium if you have a dry hydrant that is tested annually. It could help defray the cost and over time even pay for the installation.