Yes, Horry County hydrants can extinguish fires, water officials say to worried residents
Along the side of East Cox Ferry Road, just off of Highway 90 near Conway, Robbie Todd cranks a hydrant wrench to open up the bright red fire hydrant there, sending a deluge of water spraying out into the nearby brush.
Then again, at the intersection of International Drive and Highway 90, the Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority employee repeats the process, flushing the hydrant, testing its pressure and then sending a thick stream of water onto the dried pine needles and sandy dirt.
A final hydrant test along Highway 90, this time in front of the Wampee Baptist Church, produced a similar result as the other two tests: The fire hydrants along Highway 90 are up to code and are supplied with enough water pressure to aid firefighters if they need to use them.
That’s the conclusion Grand Strand Water & Sewer leaders have drawn following the tests on Wednesday, hoping to ease residents’ concerns that the rapid growth in the area has affected water pressure so severely that county firefighters may not have a reliable source of water.
“No doubt about it, it’s good to go. It meets all the criteria,” said Todd after the test at the International Drive stop.
Grand Strand Water & Sewer arranged the fire hydrant tests following resident concerns raised in a news article by The Sun News last week. Residents along Highway 90, in that story, shared that they often experience issues with water pressure in their homes and with their outdoor spigots, and some said they worried that the water pressure issues extended to fire hydrants.
“...If you have a fire, I don’t think there’s going to be what they expect in those mains, you have to hope the tankers have enough,” one resident, William Janssen, told The Sun News.
In response, GSW&S leaders said that, yes, additional homes in a certain area can add demand for water, and residents may notice a drop in pressure, especially during times that many people are showering or using lots of water. Though, the GSW&S leaders said, their water pressure tests meet state criteria for health and safety.
And Joseph Tanner, the county fire chief, said his crews routinely bring tanker trucks full of water to active fires to ensure the firefighters have enough water on scene.
But Grand Strand Water & Sewer sought to assure residents that its fire hydrants have enough water flow and pressure to handle any emergencies along Highway 90.
“We regularly test our system for water quality and pressure and to assure that all regulatory requirements are met,” Grand Strand Water & Sewer Authority CEO Fred Richardson wrote in a letter to The Sun News.
On Wednesday, GSW&S tests showed the following results:
- At the East Cox Ferry Road hydrant, GSW&S observed 52 psi of static pressure and 32 psi of residual pressure, which equates to 950 gallons per minute.
- At the International Drive hydrant, GSW&S observed 60 psi of static pressure and 37 psi of residual pressure, which equates to 1,025 gallons per minute.
- And at the Wampee Baptist Church hydrant, GSW&S observed 70 psi of static pressure and 52 psi of residual pressure, which equates to 1,210 gallons per minute.
According to state regulations enforced the by the Dept. of Health and Environmental Control, fire hydrants need to have 25 psi of static pressure, 20 psi of residual pressure and be able to discharge 500 gallons of water per minute. Static pressure refers to the water pressure at a given fire hydrant, and residual pressure refers to the water pressure when water is flowing through the hydrant.
A typical house fire may require several hundred gallons of water per minute to extinguish.
Neeraj Patel, GSW&S’s chief of field operations, said the agency monitors the water flow data from its fire hydrants — about one-third of county hydrants are tested each year — and plans for additional pressure or system capacity if the authority’s engineers notice the pressure is nearing state limits. In Highway 90’s case, Patel said, the agency is planning to build a pumping station along International Drive to help increase water pressure in the area, as well as a water tower on Old Highway 90, which can also aid pressure.
“...When we know that when we’re approaching what the regulatory limit is and we’re not meeting those requirements and we’re approaching that point, then we know that improvements are needed,” Patel said.
Patel added that GSW&S seeks to be “a couple steps” ahead of development as Horry County continues to add new homes and people.
According to the most recent U.S. Census data, Horry County added nearly 82,000 new residents over the past decade, with the unincorporated areas of the county seeing the highest growth. Along Highway 90, that’s meant the mostly two-lane road has become clogged with traffic, and residents and officials say the road is reaching capacity and needs to widened and raised to keep it from flooding. County leaders are currently working with state lawmakers to find up to $500 million to fix the 20-mile-long road.
Highway 90 runs from Highway 501 Business, just outside of downtown Conway, to Robert Edge Parkway near North Myrtle Beach.
Keeping up with that growth has GSW&S making plans for major projects and predicting future growth every few years, Patel said, as the agency works to keep up with the new demands.
“The goal is always to be a couple steps ahead of development, we don’t want to put in all new infrastructure today because if you put in quality infrastructure today that might be a lot of cost that our customers would have to absorb,” he said. “We listen to our customers, if we have a rash of issues ...we might know that we need to make some improvements and shift things sooner.”
This story was originally published September 9, 2021 at 8:43 AM.
