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Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar
Rural Water Supply Operations Seminar

Water Supply Officer Seminar
Water Supply Officer Seminar

Relay Pumping With Large Diameter Hose
Relay Pumping With Large Diameter Hose

Dry Fire Hydrants Seminar
FD Interface with Fire Protection Systems

Dry Fire Hydrants Seminar
Dry Fire Hydrants Seminar

Dry Fire Hydrant Designs and Installations
Dry Fire Hydrant Designs and Installations

Suction Strainer Flow Test Project:Test Results

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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.

Maryland New York Vermont New York
   
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Alberta Alberta Alberta Pennsylvania
     
Kansas      
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Waterbury Engine 1 (1500 gpm) takes draft and prepares to flowtest the newly installed dry fire hydrant.
Waterbury Engine 1 (1500 gpm) takes draft and prepares to flowtest the newly installed dry fire hydrant.

Dry Hydrant Design #72 - Bridge-Mount Installation - Duxbury, Vermont

President Mark Davis, April 24

Earlier this month we finished up another bridge-mount dry fire hydrant installation in Vermont. This time it was on River Road in the Town of Duxbury. The Vermont Rural Fire Protection Task Force through the Vermont Association of Conservation Districts (VACD) provided assistance to the Waterbury Fire Department in developing a plan to improve water supply in Duxbury. The Vermont Legislature approved ... (Full Story & Photos)

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Dry Hydrant Design #71 - Another Bridge Mount for Champlain, NY

President Mark Davis, April 17

After fighting off several months of snow and frigid temperatures we were able to complete our installation of a bridge-mount dry fire hydrant on Cardin Road in Champlain, NY. The Champlain Fire District and the Town of Champlain have done an excellent job of assessing their fire protection water supply needs....especially their drafting and dry fire hydrant locations. The Cardin Road dry fire hydrant ... (Full Story & Photos)

Niagara Hose Engine 141 (2000 gpm) flow tests the new installation and produces a 1000+ gpm flow using the pre-piped deck gun.
Niagara Hose Engine 141 (2000 gpm) flow tests the new installation and produces a 1000+ gpm flow using the pre-piped deck gun.

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A 3-dump tank operation supports the 1500 gpm flow.
A 3-dump tank operation supports the 1500 gpm flow.

Haulin' Water - Winfield, Maryland Style!

President Mark Davis, April 10

On April 5th and 6th more than 80 folks from three Maryland counties got together to review the best practices of hauling water with tankers. The focus of our 16-hr Rural Water Supply Operations seminar was applying the best practices of hauling water while following the Carroll County SOP on structural firefighting. The 2-hr drill on Sunday was designed so that the first half of the drill would ... (Full Story & Photos)

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Dump Site Operations #37 - 3-Way Clappered Siamese

President Mark Davis, April 03

No rocket science here. There are number of appliances that can be used to make a "rural hitch" operation work. The clappered ones tend to work best as no human is needed to open a control valve. At our seminar last month in Iowa, a 5" Storz x 2-1/2" NH 3-way clappered siamese was used to support the rural hitch operation that supplied water to an attack engine 650 feet away. The device worked just ... (Full Story & Photos)

The 3-way clappered siamese was a good fit for this water supply operation.
The 3-way clappered siamese was a good fit for this water supply operation.

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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.
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.

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)

Dumping and transferring...critical coordination points as flow demand increases.
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.
Our saddle-mount design provides new access to the tidal Moon River on Sullivan Street in Savannah, Georgia.

Dry Hydrant Design #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)

Equipped to speed up the loading process and help out dump site operations if needed.  Nothing fancy but certainly effective.
Equipped to speed up the loading process and help out dump site operations if needed. Nothing fancy but certainly effective.

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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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