Rural Water Supply Problem

[LeadMPO51]

I was with friends at another fire company last evening while they had a rural water supply drill. Approximately 3000' of 5" hose was laid in a rural setting and drafting was done from one of three water sources the company has identified as a supply for fire fighting purposes (this dam, another dam at opposite end of village, and a 15000 gallon cistern in the middle). This is a village with no public water supply (aka: what's a fire hydrant?). The company has developed good procedures and run cards to deal with the need to work in this type of environment. The procedure for this particular location (a church in the middle of town) is to initially establish a supply from the cistern until the 2nd supply from the fire dam is established. The alternate dam was even a greater distance. (Tankers were not part of this drill but would respond normally and a shuttle would be established as a second source.)

The problem we ran in to last evening was that the source engine at the dam was continually being clogged by a severe algae problem in the dam. They had to shut down and clean out their strainers. Shooting an 1.5 " line back at the strainer while drafting, which has worked for me in the past, provided only minimal (and short-lived) relief of the problem. (When things were not clogged we were flowing 1300"+" gpm with no problem, ...at least until it clogged up again.)

One of the problems with this source is the water is fairly stagnant, with very little in/out flow. There is nothing that can be done to correct this at this time. We critiqued the drill afterward and no one could come up with a viable solution.

I putting this out to everyone via several boards/forums, to see how others have handled this problem? Has anyone come up with any new/unique solutions?? (The expense of a lot of money is not an option for the company or municipality at this time.)

Thoughts - ideas - suggestions...

[MalahatTwo7]

Before I make ideas for solutions, I have a question regarding the draughting equipment:

Were they using a sinkable strainer, that sits on the bottom or do they carry what we here call a float dock? Basically the strainer is contained in a big 'box' that floats on the surface, with the top of the strainer sealed up, so that water only draughts from the lower side, that is in the water.

I will see if I can get a pic of ours......

[fftrainer]

Who owns the property contained these draft ponds? The reason I ask is that we have a pond that is on a private farm that is very well maintained by the owner. The pond has had problems in the past, but they were corrected by a new owner implementing a "weed management" program. I believe he simply treats the water with some sort of algaecide/weedkiller. I wouldn't swim in it, but the strainer doesn't get clogged up any more either. I'm not sure the environmentalists out there would be too happy, but in the end he is protecting the assets of his farm by having this water available to us in a central location on his property.

Just a thought!

[LeadMPO51]

Originally posted by MalahatTwo7
Were they using a sinkable strainer, that sits on the bottom or do they carry what we here call a float dock? Basically the strainer is contained in a big 'box' that floats on the surface, with the top of the strainer sealed up, so that water only draughts from the lower side, that is in the water.

At the draft they initially were working with a float dock. I then believe they switched to a barrel-type strainer. (Unfortunately, I had walked to another part of the scenario.) We had problems both ways.

[HFDCLanger]

Use multiple Turbodraft lines. At 10 feet of lift through 50' of lousy 5" hose, you will easily flow your 1,300+gpm with two medium TDs. Have three running off the rig and you can constantly have one self-flushing while flowing full capacity.