By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
Submitted April 16, 2008
The Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board posed questions regarding local fire hydrants to Moapa Valley Water District General Manager, Brad Huza, at a meeting held Wednesday, April 9. MVTAB member, Rik Eide, stated that he was aware of instances in Overton where property owners had been required to put in a hydrant, had paid a significant sum of money to do so and then been told that it didn’t flow sufficiently. They were then told that they had to put additional money into a sprinkler system for the building, Eide said.
“They basically have spent a boatload of money with no recourse to the Water District for a product that they have bought to provide service,” Eide said.
Eide said that he had been told in informal inquiries that the Water District doesn’t guarantee flows or pressure to any given hydrant. “With all due respect, that is sort of an answer in a bucket,” Eide said.
Huza explained that, in these cases, the Water District gives the customer a certificate on fire flow in the area of the given property. This calculation is done by experienced engineers and is a relatively simple, straight forward determination, Huza said. “The fire flow is what it is,” Huza said.
The customer then takes that calculation to the Clark County Fire Department and is issued a permit for a fire hydrant to be installed, Huza explained.
The customer then goes back to the Water District with a request for a fire hydrant to be installed. “We then go out, install it and confirm flow at the location and it is the same thing as what we told them it would be from the start,” Huza said. “The fire department then tells them that this isn’t enough and requires them to sprinkle the building too.”
“I don’t know how to get past that with the fire department,” Huza continued. “But the customer has that information on the system when he goes to the fire department. We haven’t missed a calculation yet.”
Huza said that there was not much clarity on just what the standard was for fire hydrant flow and pressure issues. He said that a long-standing tradition of miscommunication exists between the county, the district and the fire department.
“We would like the Fire Department to pick a clear criteria for fire flow,” Huza said. “It doesn’t make any difference to county staff. It doesn’t make any difference to Water District staff. But they should just pick a criteria and stick with it. This would make it simple to adhere to and clear up a lot of miscommunication.”
MVTAB Chairwoman, Judy Metz, stated that she and Huza had met with CCFD official, Gerard Page, about this issue and had been promised a solution by February 1. “It’s April now and we haven’t heard anything back,” Metz said. “I talked to him a month ago and he said that he would meet with you (Huza) and get it all straightened out. That obviously still hasn’t happened.”
Metz requested that another meeting with Page be scheduled to follow up on the issue.
