Can he fill his pool
from a hydrant?
By Donna Comella

Yes.

When some northside Newark residents saw a neighbor fill his pool from a fire hydrant Monday evening, they made some phone calls - to the Police Department, the Fire Chief, the First Asst. Fire Chief, the Village Offices, other neighbors, a photographer...

But, actually, what looked like theft of services is really a pretty common practice - and certainly not free.

Village Operations Manager Jim Bridgeman said that about a dozen people a year borrow a water meter to attach to a hydrant for just such purposes. In this case, however, a meter was not available, so the gallons to be used (and billed) were determined by the square footage of the pool. According to Bridgeman, one of the village's two meters is being used at the construction site of the Clinton St. bridge, and the other is in for repairs.

Russell Harris, of Harris Consulting, said that such water usage needs to be monitored so that the village can account for water that is used but not sent through the sewer system.

Harris, whose company handles the meter reading/water billing for the village, estimates that Newark has about 15% (or 120 million gallons) per year unaccounted for. But that, he points out, is not an unreasonable amount when you take into account firefighting efforts, and what might be lost from pipes that are over a hundred years old.

Compared to the 120 million gallons unaccounted for, Bridgeman estimates the average above-ground pool takes anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 gallons.

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