Sunday, January 12, 2025

Water Management

 Talking with my sons today about the California fires.  One son runs the water for a city of 50K, the other runs a small rural water district.

Both of them told me that in the event of a catastrophe, they had about three hours of water in the tanks available for use.  A large fire, for example, with multiple trucks pumping from hydrants, about three hours before supplies became critical.  If the electric power was lost that runs the well pumps or the booster pumps, that would cut into the supply because they couldn't refill the storage tanks that feed the pressure to the hydrants.

Elder son says that what scares him the most is a "freeze event", where a big freeze hits the area and many small 1/2" lines burst.  He said that if he had a couple of hundred small lines burst, the effect would be like losing a large line.  He told me that the water folks in Los Angeles have a particular problem because all those structures that have burned, all had water going into them.  As the turn the systems back on, someone is going to have to go around and close the valves at the individual meters.

It was interesting listening to the boys talk across the table today at lunch.  Today was meatloaf, potato salad and yeast rolls.  I learned a lot about water management and what the worker bees in California are going through right now.

But, just so you know, your water system, the one you use to wash dishes and take a shower, is always three hours from catastrophe

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