Henrico County Utilities Department is concerned that the proposed changes will lead to fire hydrant drains being plugged regularly. The plugging of fire hydrants drains will lead to maintenance and operational issues for the utility as hydrants will have to be regularly pumped to avoid freezing and posing extreme danger to the community and fire fighters when hydrants are used for firefighting activities and are found to be frozen more often .  Weep holes are an engineered solution to prevent the potential for hydrants to freeze and minimize the risk of backflow. Once that engineered solution is bypassed, the likelihood for problems increases dramatically.  The risk of contamination through a hydrant drain to the water system does not outweigh the risk of a hydrant freezing and not being functional when needed to serve its primary purpose.

Henrico County Utilities Department recommends that 12VAC5-590-1170 be changed to read:

1. Where hydrant drains are not plugged, they shall be drained to the ground surface or to subsurface stone filled wells or other engineered solutions provided exclusively for this purpose.
2. Hydrant drains shall not be connected to sanitary sewers or storm drains.
3. Fire hydrants shall be connected only to water mains adequately designed for fire flows in accordance with the requirements of 12VAC5-590-1120 B.