The Southwest Regional Water District provides water to approximately 15,500 customers, including many residents of the Oxford area. Hydrants installed on the District’s water mains serve several purposes.

Although many people might think of fire fighting as the first and most important use for hydrants, and many of the hydrants on the system are used by the fire departments for that purpose, many of the District’s water mains are sized primarily to deliver drinking water, not fire flow volumes, so some of the hydrants are used only by District personnel to help operate the system.

District employees use hydrants periodically to flush the mains and also to remove entrapped air after repairs are made. Not all hydrants are full-sized. Many of them are slender post-style hydrants.

The District’s hydrants are color coded. Yellow hydrants can deliver at least 500 gallons per minute; red hydrants deliver less. It’s the size of the water main that determines available flow, so a full-sized hydrant will not necessarily be painted yellow.

Since the weather causes the paint to fade, every few years the hydrants are re-painted. Since early August, the District’s painting contractor has been at work on this project, and before the end of the season he will have painted about 1,000. The district expects to have the remaining 800 hydrants painted in 2013.