Rattlesnake Tank recognizes high school seniors

FALLBROOK – For anyone who has ever wondered why the water tank up the hill from South Mission Road is painted with numbers each year, here’s a little Fallbrook history. Every year, the Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) changes the painted numbers on “Rattlesnake Tank” to reflect the year the incoming seniors at Fallbrook High School will graduate.

On Aug. 15, FPUD staff painted over the “11,” changing it to “12,” to welcome the graduating class of 2012.

The reason for the annual external makeover? For more than 30 years, FPUD has painted the tank as the ultimate tribute to Fallbrook’s high school seniors. And as much as this recognizes the class of Fallbrook’s future, it has more to do with Fallbrook’s past.

In the years before the district workers began painting the tank, seniors – taking on a dare – would climb up the hill in the middle of the night, scale the tank and then paint it themselves. Since it’s a long way down, the district’s staff of more than 30 years ago became concerned for their safety. So, FPUD installed a fence around the tank. But that didn’t deter the lively bunch: They just began jumping the fence in the middle of the night. So FPUD struck a deal: If students would stop risking their safety for the dare, the district would paint the tank every year to commemorate them. And FPUD has been doing it ever since!

It takes district staff about six hours to paint the 25-foot-tall numbers onto the 3.6 million gallon tank. Since the tank shares space with Verizon’s cell tower, arrangements have to be made with Verizon to power-down the tower. Verizon is given two weeks’ notice that the painting needs to be done and they designate a block of time, in this case, Aug. 15 from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., for painting crews to hoist themselves up to the tower and get to work.

Rattlesnake Tank was built in the early 1950s and is one of FPUD’s oldest and most visible water tanks.