Why is the city of Plano running these hydrants?
Posted by blueoval_dfw@reddit | plano | View on Reddit | 15 comments
Does anybody know why the city is doing this? In the past they've run it from this hydrant a couple times a year for a few hours. The last couple months they're letting it run a couple times a week for several hours at a time. I noticed it today at 9AM, it's still running now at 1:30PM.
yamgarden@reddit
There’s so much water that comes out. I’m always tempted to take a bucket and use it to water the lawn. Anyone know if that water is usable for watering? 🤣
Any-Concentrate-3951@reddit
100% suitable for irrigation. Years ago the City tried offering a ‘free watering day’ instead of flushing lines. Problem was not enough water was used watering lawns to make a difference- still had to flush lines.
Pisscats_R_Trash@reddit
The city would rather waste every drop of it and to have somebody use it on their lawn. Or maybe they would let you use it but then give you a ticket for it. Lol.
DrBendix@reddit
But a new data center taking millions of gallons per day will be fine
elictronic@reddit
For a 1/8 acre lawn that would be about 3000 buckets. Hope you have a good back.
blueoval_dfw@reddit (OP)
I thought the same thing. They're flushing enough for the whole neighborhood to water their yards.
SMDHinTx@reddit
They seem to do it every year or two in my neighborhood
nounthennumbers@reddit
They are probably having a problem keeping the chlorine residual high enough at the end of the line. If the water isn’t used fast enough the chlorine evaporates out and the water may not be safe anymore. To prevent this sometime they had to flush the old water out of the line so that more chlorinated water replaces it
blueoval_dfw@reddit (OP)
I figured it was something like that. They're doing it so often it seems a bit much though.
nounthennumbers@reddit
I worked at the very tail end of Dallas’ water service where Dalls meets Grand Prairie and the had to run the hydrant 24/7 because there wasn’t enough demand to keep the water moving.
pingpongftw@reddit
Interesting. My friend lives in an apartment and whenever I visit 9 times out of 10 I see a hydrant flushing water like this. I wonder if it’s the same reasoning
drlostdude@reddit
This is the correct answer. Harder to maintain water quality and safety farther out in the system and periodic flushes help maintain safety
spideraquarium@reddit
Flushing the lines for maintenance. They did it on my street too.
Saamari@reddit
They are flushing the lines, no problem goes back through the storm system
Theisgroup@reddit
Not enough fires in the area. The water needs to be cycled based on chlorine and chemicals in the line