Is CCWD
infrastructure adequate to supply water to residents of Rancho Calaveras in a
heat wave??
Read
quotes from newspapers and CCWD...you decide.
Outdoor watering banned
in Calaveras neighborhood
“The tank serving 900 homes [in Rancho Calaveras near Jenny
Lind] went dry Sunday night after demand for water exceeded the
approximately 1.7 million gallons a day the water district can pump into the
tank.
District staffers said they had been
struggling for the past month to pump enough water from the Jenny Lind
Water Treatment Plant on Silver
Dana Nichols--
Water
District Declares Emergency
“A power surge over the weekend knocked out the water pump
to residents in the Rancho Calaveras subdivision.
The district says it has switched pumps but water
is not coming into the system fast enough to meet demand.”
Vanessa Turner--MyMotherLode.com,
Hundreds of Rancho residents
without water
“The 1-million gallon tank supplying
about 900 homes literally went dry... the CCWD board declared a water emergency
and instituted mandatory rationing during a special Monday morning meeting.
The storage tank, located off
Customers were using about 1.7 million gallons a day from the tank, which is
the maximum rate water can be pumped into it, CCWD
General Manger David Andres said.
Water had fallen to a level of 3
feet in a tank that can hold it to a 20-foot level when employees went through
the area Saturday and again on Sunday asking
residents to restrict their water usage.
Then a Sunday afternoon power surge knocked the area’s treatment plant off
line, halting the flow of water to the tank for about two hours, Andres said.
Crews no sooner got the equipment operating again when a second surge hit,
forcing the pumps to shut down again. All
systems were functioning again Monday, but it’s going to take some time.
“We are feeding from our plant at the maximum we can, but our customers are
using more water than allows us to recharge that tank,” Andres said.”
Craig
Koscho--Calaveras Enterprise,
Valley
Springs subdivision loses water
“Water service was
restored last night to 900 homes south of Valley Springs, a day after a
Calaveras County Water District water tank went dry because a power surge
knocked out a district pump.
The homes at the Rancho
Calaveras subdivision lost water about
That service was
restored starting at
“The outage combined
with high water usage in the area drained the million-gallon tank dry, he
said. Perley
said he did not think this was the first time the subdivision had lost water.”
Chris
Nichols--Union Democrat,
Public Notice Regarding
Water Shortage
“Due to the recent high temperatures and very high outdoor water use,
delivery of water
to a portion of Rancho Calaveras in
CCWD’s Jenny Lind service area has been strained.
Problems continue with bringing in as much water as is
required to meet the high water demand. As a result, the
CCWD Board has declared a water emergency for its Jenny Lind water service
area.”
“Until further notice, CCWD is
asking its customers in the area of the Rancho
Calaveras
subdivision to suspend outdoor watering.”
CCWD
Public Notice,
Emergency Declaration
“This one-million gallon tank has been operating at 1.7 million
gallons a day of outflow to customers during the recent heat wave, which is
the maximum amount of water that can be pumped to the tank.”
“CCWD has switched pumps and other systems to backup generator to
eliminate power issues. However water is not coming into the system fast
enough to meet demand.”
“According to operations and maintenance superintendent Bill Perley, water is flowing
into the affected
service zone at a rate of 1.7 million gallons per day; usage is at least
that high. If all outdoor watering is suspended, water levels in the local
storage tank
should return to normal in less than a
day. When that occurs, it is anticipated that a
modified conservation plan
will be implemented severely limiting outdoor water use.”
CCWD
Emergency Declaration,
EMERGENCY WATER SITUATION
For those of
you who suffered through almost two days without water ...
imagine what it would have been like if there had been a fire! CCWD is
blaming this on the heat wave causing people to use excessive amounts of
water which is true, and the power surges which caused a pump to fail, which
is also true. However, the real problem is the system is inadequate for
the
amount of people that it serves. For years CCWD has been advised they
need
to improve Tank B which serves the afflicted area but they ignored the
warnings. Now this area is prohibited from outdoor watering until further
notice. When I moved here 17 years ago I, like many others, wanted a
green
spot in this barren land, so I planted and planted, and willingly paid the
high prices for the water, without any warning from anyone. Since that
time
thousands more homes have been built, half of them have put in swimming
pools or water features and beautiful landscaping that needs regular
irrigation, which now will die at a tremendous cost to homeowners as well as
the entire community. Is it fair for the people that are already here to
suffer so some greedy contractors can just keep making their millions? I
don't think so! We have an emergency situation on our hands and it has to
be addressed now!
K. Crivello, Rancho Calaveras
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