County Code - Sec 22

ARTICLE II. OPERATING PROCEDURES

DIVISION 1. GENERALLY

Sec. 22-29. Fire hydrants and private fire protection systems.

(a) Fire hydrants are provided for the sole purpose of extinguishing fires and all persons other than those specifically authorized by the owner of the water system are prohibited from opening or using the same. Any person authorized to open a fire hydrant shall use only an approved wrench and shall replace caps on the outlets when not in use. All authorized uses shall be metered and the required service charges shall apply. A fire hydrant meter shall be furnished by the user, and shall be registered with and approved by the county or other water system owner prior to its use. If the county is the owner the user shall, in addition, place a $25.00 deposit with the county, which shall be applied towards the user’s bill for water use.

(b) No person shall place or cause to be placed any inoperative fire hydrant, or any device that resembles a hydrant, in such a manner as to be confused with a functioning fire hydrant.

(c) Private fire protection systems shall be subject to the following regulations in addition to other requirements:

(1) A fire service detector check meter shall be installed in a bypass to monitor small flows in the fire service connection. The county shall read each detector check meter at least annually. The county reserves the right to require an existing fire service connection customer to install at its expense a detector check meter with a bypass pipe.

(2) There shall be no charge for water supplied through a private fire protection system which is used to extinguish fires.

(3) No addition of any hydrant, standpipe, sprinkler head or other outlet shall be made to a fire protection system until plans for such addition have been submitted to and approved in writing by the county.

(4) Water supplied through a private fire service connection shall be used solely for the extinguishment of fires and, upon approval by the county, for fire drill testing of the fire protection system.

(d) Fire hydrants and other fire protection measures shall be required and installed as part of the construction or extension of water systems in accordance with the standards and regulations of the county, or the system owner, whichever are more stringent.