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By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — It’s one of the scenes of summer, the open fire hydrant, flushing city water lines to make them clean.
The city of Plymouth has undertaken a new plan this year that will not only make the city water lines cleaner, but cut down on the number of times a line needs to be flushed in a year. The technique is called unidirectional flushing and Plymouth’s water department has contracted the company of M.E. Simpson of Valparaiso to perform the service for the city this year.
Normally the city has flushed lines all directions at the same time. The unidirectional technique shuts off valves and forces the water in one direction at a time, thus “unidirectional.”
“It lets you get more velocity,” said Water Department Superintendent Jeff Yeazel. “It lets you really scour out the inside of the mains.”
The result is not only cleaner water, but savings for the city.
“As long as we have the old cast iron mains you have to clean them out,” said Yeazel. “We’re spending around $52,000 for this process, and last year the project we did replacing the mains around Randolph Street was about $300,000. Until we can afford to replace the old infrastructure this is a big savings.”
The savings isn’t all in just the bottom line.
“If we’re doing this we’ll have four of my guys out at a time, in their trucks with their equipment,” said Yeazel. “This way they (Simpson) are using their guys, their trucks, their equipment so we’re saving on labor, gasoline and power to run the pumps and the process takes less water, too.”
The company is also doing maintenance on the city’s valves during the process, something that they have done since the early ‘90s.
Area residents won’t notice any other difference in their own water during the process, except once it’s done it will be cleaner.
“In the streets they might notice a little more discoloration during the process but by the time they turn it off (the hydrant) it will be perfectly clean,” said Yeazel.
Residents should use the same caution while washing clothes as they have in the past to avoid any discoloration. If any laundry accident should occur Yeazel says that residents can call his office for a special additive to help with clothes that may be discolored, however they must use the additive before their clothes are dried. The additive is free of charge.
Residents don’t have to worry about drinking the discolored water.
“It’s not dangerous to drink; there’s more iron in a ‘One a Day’ vitamin,” said Yeazel. “It is a lot better to drink though when it’s nice and clean.”
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