Water Main Replacement Project will add fire protection

WICHITA FALLS, Texas (TNN) - The Wichita Falls Water Main Replacement Project includes a number of preventative measures to improve overall water quality.

“We budget to replace old deteriorated water lines in the city. We try to focus dollars on areas that we have maintenance issues. We are going to repair leaks, and in six weeks we are going to those areas again to re-fix leaks. We want to eliminate those lines from the system,” said Russell Schreiber, the Director of Public Works for the city of Wichita Falls.

Wichita Falls City Council members approved funds for this yearly project earlier this week. The water improvement plan is not only beneficial for residents that live on streets like Hampstead, North Beverly, and Airport Dr, but it also makes things easier for the Wichita Falls firefighters.

The Director of Public Works Russell Schreiber said one of those measures is more fire hydrants.

"Anything like that is going to help us. That new supply system has better pressure, it's just better all the way around for us," said Assistant Fire Chief Donald Hughes.

Schreiber says some of the pipes in the 2019 plan are in such bad shape it's hard to tell how old they actually are, but they need to be replaced.

"When we replace those old 2-inch mains with larger diameter 6-8 inch mains, we can add fire hydrants to those areas, and that's the main focus. We built this into our current budget and it already in the rates that the customers are paying," said Schreiber.

Firefighters have long enough hoses to reach current fire hydrants, but this project will keep them from having to go as far to find one when there’s a fire.

Copyright 2019 Texoma News Network. All rights reserved.