Fire Hydrant Flow Certifying, State of Texas
What is it? Testing of the flow rate from a fire hydrant should show minimum of 250 gallons per minute (gpm).
Should include measurement to show water system safely maintains minimum operating pressure of 20 psi or higher, required under public water system rules (30 Texas Administrative Code Chapter 290).
Why? House Bill 1717 passed by Texas Legislature in 2007 session states that by January 1, 2008, an owner of any device having the appearance of a fire hydrant that is located in a place where a fire hydrant typically would be located should paint the device black if the device is nonfunctioning or otherwise unavailable for use. The hydrant is considered nonfunctioning if it pumps less than 250 gallons of water per minute. There is no required minimum time period for the pump rate.
What’s the benefit of testing and getting flows certified? The public water system shows sufficient fire flow is available (greater than 250 gpm), protecting its residents and maintaining reasonable fire insurance rates. This will probably help with ISO rating of the area, which has a big impact on insurance rates.
What’s the downside of not doing it? See this press release.
Some systems have opted to just paint their hydrants black, not testing at all. This results in residents being upset that fire flow is not assured in any way. Fire department gets upset that no fire flow is available, and then tells residents that fire protection is in grave doubt. And fire insurance rates will climb, once the area gets re-rated based on the lack of hydrant availability/operability.
What’s the cost? Testing and certifying hydrants can be done for $75 to $100 per hydrant, depending on number of hydrants in system.
Other valuable information:
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and FireHydrant.org recommends a painting scheme for fire hydrants which tells firefighters what flow rate a hydrant is capable of providing.
FireHydrant.Org recommends the following body colors for fire hydrants:
Body Color
Chrome Yellow
Red
Violet (Light Purple)
Flow Indicators
The NFPA standard calls for bonnets and caps to be color-coded to indicate the hydrant's available flow at 20 p.s.i. Standard color codes are as follows:
NFPA 291, Chap. 3
Less than 500 GPM
Red
Class B
500-999 GPM
Orange
Class A
1000-1499 GPM
Green
Class AA
1500 GPM & above
Light Blue
