By Amanda Martinez
Special to the SUN

The Española City Council wants to see an ordinance to regulate the installation of privately owned fire hydrants throughout the city due to questions about liability and safety.

During the Feb. 24 meeting, councilors and city officials discussed a few privately installed and owned fire hydrants that were never dedicated to the city for ownership and maintenance. Today, many of these hydrants no longer work and could not be used in an emergency.

“Having public and private fire hydrants is ridiculous,” District 2 Councilor Peggy Sue Martinez said during the meeting. “These are suppression systems that will save people’s lives and people’s homes. We can’t depend on being in the middle of public and private. It’s too dangerous.”

There are at least seven or eight of these hydrants in Valley Estates, District 4 Councilor Samuel LeDoux said.

“Basically, they’re turned off now,” he said. “They aren’t even standardized size so they can’t even be used, but they are sprinkled throughout the neighborhood.”

In these situations, commercial developments would have had to pay for a third-party plumber to install lines, which connect to the fire hydrants, but there is no requirement for private owners to then dedicate the lines or hydrants to the city.

Public Works Director Elijah Mares said issues like this originate from many years ago and today, they do go inspect plumbing on commercial projects.

Planning Director Ernest Martinez said that when his department reviews survey plats, all features of the property are marked, including privately owned and publicly owned fire hydrants.

“The survey plat is recorded, and that information makes the lot legal in terms of meeting the requirements that the city requires in terms of assuring that that lot is serviceable and provides the utilities needed for that development and, or, adjacent properties,” he said.

An ordinance would close the gap on dedicating infrastructure to the city.

Peggy Sue Martinez said this is an instance of the city short-changing itself again.

She said that when a private entity is done, they should go through an inspection process to verify that they are stable and operable and then transfer ownership of the hydrants to the city.

Water Operations Foreman Clarence Maestas said during the meeting that this is possible and would be a straight-forward process starting with the Development Review Team.

Plumbing infrastructure would be inspected and then the council would just then approve the dedication to the city, he said.