Stormin Mormon wrote, on Tue, 01 Jul 2014 07:42:20 -0400:

Interesting. That's a dry pipe hydrant. I thought
you were / are in California? Does it get cold and
freeze in the winter? North part of the state?

I don't know what you mean by a "dry pipe hydrant", so,
googling for that term, Wikipedia says it's a non-pressurized
hydrant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_hydrant).

But this "Guide to planning & installing dry hydrants"
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/forestmanage...pub/fr-044.pdf
implies that it's for sucking water out of a lake or pond.

I can call the San Jose Water Company to be sure, but,
what do you mean by a dry hydrant (and how can you tell
just by looking at the photo)?
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3867/1...cd625d51_b.jpg