At a June 12 meeting, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors approved the formatting of a letter from the Pagosa Fire Protection District (PFPD) providing the district’s approval for fire flow levels on new developments.
How the PFPD manages certifying that new projects have sufficient amounts of water available for fire fighting has been a point of contention between PAWSD and the PFPD in recent months, with the PAWSD board and staff raising concerns that the PFPD having an insufficiently clear approval process could open PAWSD to liability for insufficient flows if a fire was to occur.
PAWSD Programs Manager Renee Lewis opened the discussion, explaining that the board was presented with a letter giving the PFPD’s determination that a planned development by Inter-Mountain Propane on Cloman Boulevard meets the fire flow requirements.
Previously, this project was expected to fail to meet the requirements of the fire code, although the PFPD had, in previous letters and discussions, indicated a potential willingness to accept these flows even if they were lower than the requirements.
However, the June 10 letter from the PFPD about the project states that it surpassed the requirement of 1,750 gallons per minute (gpm) of fire flow, producing 1,760 gpm.
A similar June 10 letter from the PFPD also indicates that a Town of Pagosa Springs fire hydrant expansion project along U.S. 160 which was expected to fall below fire flow requirements also surpassed the 1,500 gpm fire flow requirement.
At the request of the PAWSD board, PFPD Chief Robert Bertram spoke to explain the changes in the volume of fire flows.
Bertram explained that, in the process of testing hydrants for the town’s project, he identified “some discrepancies” in the testing methods for hydrants.
He stated that hydrant testing had been done by testing flows when one 2-inch cap was removed from the hydrant, but that it did not consider flows if all caps (including two 2-inch caps and one 4-inch cap) were removed, which would represent the flow of all water available in the pipe for firefighting.
In the calculations, he stated that the PFPD assessed how much flow would come from the fully opened hydrant at a water pressure of 20 pounds per square inch (psi) since anything lower than this would interfere with drinking water standards.
He added that fire flow in the fire code refers to what water is available in the line at 20 psi, not how much comes out of the hydrant.
PAWSD board chair Gene Tautges clarified that the PFPD would be considering “pipe flow” in the pipes, not “hydrant flow” from the hydrants.
Bertram expressed agreement with this assessment.
Following further discussion, the board moved on to discuss what action the board needed to take on the letters from the PFPD.
PAWSD District Engineer/Manager Justin Ramsey commented that the board was considering approving the Inter-Mountain Propane inclusion and that the letter is only a portion of this, meaning that action was not needed.
However, Lewis added that the board might want to formally approve the formatting of the letter and vote that it is acceptable to the PAWSD board since the PFPD had previously provided letters in formats that the board found unacceptable.
PAWSD board member Bill Hudson commented that the board was likely considering accepting the letter when fire flows are met, but added that there could be situations where flows were not met and that the board would not want to accept the flow levels in this context.
Ramsey explained that, in this circumstance, PAWSD would typically ask a developer to make improvements to the water system to ensure fire flows could be met and would wait to approve the project until the fire flows are met.
PAWSD board member Glenn Walsh commented that the board was approving a methodology, which he felt was a “positive development” from the previous methodology.
Tautges suggested that the board was approving a template for letters stating that a project meets fire flow requirements.
Lewis asked Bertram if having the board approve the letter’s formatting would be helpful, with Bertram stating it would be since he had formatted the letter with the goal of meeting PAWSD’s needs.
He added that some more remote projects might need to have a lower standard of fire flow applied to them, which the PFPD would provide documentation for.
Tautges commented that PAWSD relies on the PFPD to assess fire flows and wants to ensure that its customers have no liability from fire flow levels.
He stated that the district is “moving in the right direction to accomplish that.”
Walsh commented that “all I can express is my thankfulness” for the PFPD’s work on the issue.
He reiterated Tautges’ comments that PAWSD follows the guidance of the PFPD on acceptable fire flows.
PAWSD board member Bruce Jones questioned why the board would approve this letter since the district was only expressing its willingness to follow the PFPD’s guidance on fire flow and was open to any changes to the calculation that the PFPD might make, while the letter only represented one methodology at one particular time.
Tautges pointed out that PAWSD’s approval is required to move forward with development projects.
Lewis commented that approving the letter would be a “formality” and show the district’s approval of the letter, which might be important given the district had been “pretty critical” of past letters.
Hudson explained that he was willing to approve a motion stating that the board liked the letter format and contents for situations where fire flow is met.
The board then unanimously approved a motion approving the format.
Following this, the board also briefly discussed the complexities that would be involved in the letter discussing fire flows for the town’s hydrant project, with Ramsey noting that the letter from the PFPD for this project would provide assurances to the town that the project would meet flow standards and would be able to be included into the PAWSD system.
Bertram added that he met with town representatives and they expressed comfort with moving forward with the project given the fire flow results.
The board then unanimously approved the inclusion agreement for the Inter-Mountain Propane project with the new fire flow letter.
josh@pagosasun.com
