05/05/2026
With the warm weather settling in, and the April showers making way for May flowers, it's time to flush the hydrants in town. But don't panic. Unlike the big city hydrant flushes, this won't interfere with your homes water supply.
In small towns like ours, we don't have the luxury of pressurized water mains feeding hydrated. In an emergency we have to get our water from dry hydrants which lead to streams, rivers and bodies of water like lakes and ponds, and transport it to the scene.
Anyway, over the course of the fall, winter, and early spring as the snow melts and heavy April showers, sediment can land on the strainer at the end of the pipes to the dry hydrant which can cause it to clog. About this time every year the department goes out and pushes water through the dry hydrant backwards to blow all of the sediment away from the strainer. After that is done we then change directions and draft the water back to the trucks to make sure the hydrants aren't clogged and work properly.
It's a great opportunity for driving training, pump training and refreshing and getting to know our community and the dry hydrants that serve it. We will be out again next week, doing the same to the remaining hydrants.
