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Someone Is Stealing Water From Fire Hydrants In Flomaton
July 31, 2019
The Town of Flomaton says someone has been stealing water from fire hydrants, and that’s a problem.
The town says they’ve had several theft reports from hydrants throughout the town.
“We would like to remind everyone that doing so is a federal offense, punishable up to jail time,” the town said in a statement. “We are proud that we provide safe drinking water and wish to keep it that way.”
Anyone that has information about the theft of water from fire hydrants in Flomaton is asked to call the town at (251) 296-2431 or the Flomaton Police Department at (251) 296-5811.
File photo.
Comments
20 Responses to “Someone Is Stealing Water From Fire Hydrants In Flomaton”
REGARDING”
” that’s only possible if… they did not add check valves which allow flow in one direction only. keeps contaminated water from flowing backwards into clean sections of pipe if one section breaks”
Very unlikely, especially if the line is on a loop.I had a devil of a time getting a check valve installed years ago to keep from pulling a vacuum on Pine Barren Road. (Different water system.) Couldn’t use it now anyway since the new well is up there now as best I recall.
And, actually, it wouldn’t be very hard to put something into the water — hydrant tool, old hose, small pump — say a biological or radioactive agent and months before anyone noticed, assuming even samples were properly taken and the culprit long gone. Your main security is that nobody’s very likely to do it to Century.
David for the law of averages
It appears that a person needs special tools and equipment to remove water from those hydrants.
AND, how do you know that someone isn’t loosening the hydrant at the connections? Doing so would allow water to leak out. After several days, thousands of gallons would be missing.
To stop this stealing, place locking covers on them and give a set of keys to First Responders and the Water Department.
Have you checked with the road construction crew?
Most likely when you run water thru a fire hydrant at a high volume, you stir the inside of the main and will cause cloudy muddy appearance to your kitchen-vath faucets. Clogs your filters to.
Retired plumber
Yeap so do they in the Christian home area also,,,turned in but dont know what happened,,,,we water our animals and pay for it then they were not
@ Rick wins ~ Rick, they aren’t stealing hydrants, they’re stealing water.
Question . How do you know someone is taking water From a hydrant ? There’s no meter on them.
Rick beat me to it…….. I was going to say that Century has resulted to stealing hydrants from Flomaton now to offset costs incurred by the gas department. Each of those hydrants is a few grand that Century can’t afford any more!! Every hydrant reappropriated to Century makes it easier to pay for the gas managers salary!
Have they spoke with the fire dept?
@ retired: is the slash pad a dangerous place to visit?
How do they know this is happening?
@ Willis: the hydrant is an exit only. it IS possible to do what you think, but there is some expensive equipment necessary to do this – and particularly in the amount necessary to affect anyone enough to notice.
and that’s only possible if… they did not add check valves which allow flow in one direction only. keeps contaminated water from flowing backwards into clean sections of pipe if one section breaks … i could show you the engineering on it.
back to the original question… how much water has to be stolen for it to be noticeable – we must be talking tens or hundreds of thousands of gallons?
We had something similar near Cantonment a couple of years ago…turns out the road repair crews were filling their tanks without permission, or payment.
rick,
You win the post of the day award!!! Excellent comment!!!
@ Rick
it is used at the slash pad
@Rick, thats a good one. Lol. I was thinking the same thing. I’d like yo know how its done. Can’t be easy
Could be any number of people for whatever reasons but a lot of people who run their own pressure washing businesses are notorious for stealing water. All you need is a wrench and a small fire hose and you’re set. It is a danger though to the public cause not only could they contaminate the water they could also blow the line that the hydrant is connected to if they shut it off too quickly.
Point being they could just as easily be putting something in.
I heard it was Century trying to supplement their water supply to offset their lost gas revenue
Hmmmm? How is that done? It’s not like turning on a faucet. What are they putting the water in?