While West Virginia regulators have asked for $70 million to fix the state’s aging fire hydrant systems, a recently released report also lambasted the state’s utilities for “unacceptable” maintenance and inspection protocols.
“It is incomprehensible, considering the importance of fire hydrants to public safety, that so many of our water utilities fail to complete this essential testing,” one state engineer wrote.
The Public Service Commission released its final report Friday after regulators spent months collecting and analyzing data on West Virginia’s roughly 50,000 fire hydrants. According to the report, about 11% have been in service longer than 50 years and are in need of prompt replacement.
More alarmingly, regulators found only 42% of utilities throughout the state even had a written procedure to actually inspect the hydrants, with Jonathan Fowler, the engineer who authored the report, calling it “an unacceptable situation.”
Only two-thirds of the state’s fire hydrants were even inspected in the last year — with Fowler writing, “anything less than a 100% annual inspection rate is unacceptable.”
Hydrants are sturdy pieces of equipment meant to last for decades. But lack of regular inspections, testing and maintenance is the most common cause of hydrant failure, the report said.
While there are laws on the books requiring a broken hydrant be covered with a black bag, the report found there is currently no state law or regulation addressing how often fire hydrants are inspected in the state.
The report recommended that the PSC revise current rules in line with national guidelines for fire hydrant inspection and maintenance. It also said each utility should be required to tell regulators in its annual report how many hydrants are inspected and tested.
As it stands, the report pegged the service life for fire hydrants to be about 50 years – but some water districts have hydrants dating back over a century, including “Methuselah”, a fire hydrant in Parkersburg in service since the 1880s.
The report estimated each hydrant is replaced every 70 years on average and called that pace “unsustainable.”
The recommended $70 million grant program would help water boards and other non-profit utilities, which are already hurting for cash, get the funds they need to put these ancient hydrants out to pasture.
Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, is the chair of the House’s Committee on Infrastructure and Technology.
Linville said the findings of the report will be a “top priority” for his committee, but he wants to take a closer look at the grant program before committing to funding it.
“I want us to make sure we’re going to solve the problem and we’re not going to have somebody look back in 70 years and say, ‘why didn’t they do anything about this?’,” Linville said.
Over the summer, Gov. Jim Justice charged state regulators with taking an inventory of West Virginia’s fire hydrants.
The investigation was in response to a house fire in Charleston where firefighters were unable to save a family’s home because the hydrants on their street did not work.