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Welcome to the Official Website for GBW Associates, LLC.
    
GotBigWater is the official website of GBW Associates, LLC, a privately owned training, consulting, and design firm located in Westminster, Maryland. Our specialty is water supply for public and private fire protection. We at GBW Associates, LLC are known for our training programs, our consulting services, our dry hydrants, and our testing services. Over the years, we have completed projects in over 42 different states and Canada ranging from rural water supply and incident command seminars to ISO water supply assessments to community master planning.
Use the menu at the left to take a look at our services and to contact us. Be sure to check out the News Archive and Big Water Information sections for a whole bunch of information on water supply delivery operations.
Scroll down to see our recent activities, upcoming events, and website updates.
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Be sure to join the Members Area to discuss water supply issues, view our document library, and receive announcement notices concerning our website and our services- it is FREE!
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Upcoming Seminars, Courses, and Drills
Click on image to view flyer.
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Vermont |
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| Alberta |
Alberta |
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Floyd Engine 1 (1500 gpm) operates as the dump site engine at the 37-minute mark. A rural hitch operation was executed for the first 37-minutes of the drill.
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Hauling Water - Iowa Style!
President Mark Davis, March 27
On March 22nd (2025) more than 40 folks from Floyd County and surrounding areas got together in 20-degree weather to haul and pump water for two-hours, uninterrupted. The drill culminated our 16-hr Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar that was hosted by the Floyd Community Volunteer Fire Department and sponsored in part by the Quad County Firefighters Association. Participants spent Thursday and ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dump Site Operations #36 - Dumping and Transferring - Keep it Moving
President Mark Davis, March 20
While looking through some photos from our 2021 seminar in Floyd, Iowa we came across this one showing dump site operations. The photo was taken about 60-minutes into the drill and does a nice job of showing water being dumped and transferred to the blue dump tank - which was the primary dump tank from which the dump site pumper drafted. The tanker dumping off the rear could only dump off the rear, ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dumping and transferring...critical coordination points as flow demand increases.
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Our saddle-mount design provides new access to the tidal Moon River on Sullivan Street in Savannah, Georgia.
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Dry Hydrant #70 - Four Bridge-Mount Installations in Chatham County, Georgia
President Mark Davis, March 13
Two weeks ago we completed the installation of four, bridge-mount dry fire hydrants in Chatham County, Georgia. The swiveling dry fire hydrants were funded by Chatham County Government in order to improve access to tidal water supplies for fire protection. The project was lead by Founders Maintenance & Restoration out of Savannah, Georgia and we worked with them to design and install the final products ... (Full Story & Photos)
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What's On Your Tanker? #60 - Simple and Effective
President Mark Davis, March 06
Since we just finalized plans to head back to Franklin County, Kansas this coming October, we took a few minutes to look back through photos from our last seminar there back in 2013. It was a hot August weekend and the folks did a nice job of hauling water with quite a variety of water hauling rigs. Wellsville's Tender 3761 brought 1800 gallons of water to the game. Nothing fancy about the rig; ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Equipped to speed up the loading process and help out dump site operations if needed. Nothing fancy but certainly effective.
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Foam system strainers need to be checked on a regular basis.
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What's On Your Engine? #21 - Class A Foam System Components
President Mark Davis, February 27
Class A foam systems are popular on many rigs today. Regardless of the brand of system, the system components require regular preventive maintenance in order for proper foam production. The foam concentrate intake screen shown in this News Story was about half full of "crud". It probably was not a big deal for simply reloading the 40-gallon on-board foam concentrate tank. But...had the operation ... (Full Story & Photos)
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What's On Your Tanker? #59 - 8-inch Jet Dump - Maiden, NC
President Mark Davis, February 20
A photo and video clip from our 2023 seminar in Catawba County, NC where we got to see Maiden Tanker 1 blow off its 1800 gallons of water through an 8-inch jet dump in just under one-minute. We were skeptical of how fast the 1988 Wolverine tanker was going to be able to dump off through the 8-inch pipe, but we also didn't know the rig was equipped with a jet dump. The video clip shows it all! The ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Stand clear when that jet dump is powered up by the Hale 350 gpm PTO-driven pump.
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The additional suction line on the driver's side allowed the 1000 gpm pumper to improve its output. The operator of the pumper was already drafting from the officer side suction inlet prior to the auxiliary intake being brought on line.
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Suction Hose #16 - Every Little Bit Can Help
President Mark Davis, February 13
A simple photo from our 2008 seminar in Strong, Maine. Phillips Engine 4 (1000 gpm/3000 gal) was used to support dump site operations at the 2-hour drill. About an hour into the operation, the crews were able to round up several lengths of 3-inch suction hose from a couple rigs carrying portable pumps and they used that suction hose to bolster Engine 4's output ability. All of the suction hose ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Dump Site Operations #35 - Homemade Jet Siphon - Northampton, New Brunswick
President Mark Davis, February 06
Some photos of another homemade jet siphon water transfer device; this time from our 2015 seminar in Northampton, New Brunswick with the Jolly Farmer Fire Brigade. The folks fabricated a jet powered siphon tube from some 8-inch metal tubing and powered it with a 1-1/2" (38mm) hose. The device transferred water pretty efficiently during the two-hour drill. The key to its successful use was to keep ... (Full Story & Photos)
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Some creative fabrication made for a pretty effective water transfer device.
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Your questions and feedback are important to us! If you have a question about water supply or pumps or FD stuff in general, join our Members area (for free) to post your inquiry. We will provide our thoughts and perhaps other folks in the field will provide theirs also.
Also - be sure to sign the guest book if this is your first time here - guestbook.
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