While it seems like a waste of water, hydrant flushing is an important part of maintaining high quality, safe drinking water to every citizen of Early.
- When line breaks happen, the section of pipe around the break, must be highly chlorinated to kill all bacteria that entered the system. This highly chlorinated water must be flushed out of the system before the section of pipe can be put back into service.
- All water systems are required by state law to maintain the correct level of disinfectant in their water system.
- Effectiveness of Chlorine dissipates over time due to the heat and water not circulating through the entire system quickly enough.
- By opening certain hydrants in areas of town, it resolves the problem of stagnate water in the system by bringing fresh water in.
It is important to flush different hydrants in different parts of town at the same time to maintain the correct direction of flow in the pipes. Hydrant flushing may take as little as 5 minutes per hydrant or up to a full day or more depending on purpose of the flush and reaching the required outcome.