Placer agency poised to declare water emergency
Published: Monday, May. 9, 2011 - 12:00 am | Page 3B
The agency providing water to Placer County residents will vote Tuesday to formally declare a water emergency.
The legally required vote comes with no suspense. The agency has been urging conservation efforts for days.
"We really need to have drastic reductions," said David Breninger, general manager of the Placer County Water Agency.
The agency serves 150,000 customers, ranging from suburban residents in Roseville to farmers in the foothills. The agency provides treated water to suburban customers and untreated canal water to agricultural users.
Breninger is hoping the community will come together to conserve water until PG&E can fix the canal.
The scramble to conserve water began after a section of the Bear River Canal slid off a mountainside near Colfax on April 19. The canal, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., is a crucial water source for the Placer County Water Agency and the Nevada Irrigation District.
Taking what little suspense there was out of the meeting, the agency board voted Thursday to implement an array of water restrictions designed to preserve what little water is available for foothills customers in and around Auburn.
The Tuesday meeting starts with a 5:30 p.m. information session. At 6 p.m., the agency board will also replay its Thursday vote to satisfy legal requirements, Breninger said.
The meeting will be held at the Gold Country Fairgrounds, Maurine Dobbas Placer Hall, 1273 High St., Auburn.
The agency is asking treated water customers with addresses ending in odd digits to water only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from sundown to sunrise. Customers with even-digit addresses should restrict themselves to watering on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays during non-daytime hours.
Customers should also refrain from using water to wash sidewalks, driveways and parking lots.
"I ask that everyone reduce, conserve and use as little water as possible and to use it wisely, as every drop counts until this crisis ends," said Lowell Jarvis, board chairman.
The cuts are deeper for untreated irrigation water customers, who are already coping with the rolling canal shutdown. Small farmers around Auburn would see a mandatory 50 percent reduction, while the cut to commercial farms and golf courses would be 25 percent.
PG&E granted access to the canal break site Friday, in part to demonstrate how hard it's working to restore the canal water and the challenges of the site.
The 6-foot-wide, concrete-lined canal ran along a steep hillside. There is now a 50-foot gap where the mountainside slid out from under the canal. Without the support from below, the canal crumbled, sending the water cascading down into Bear River.
On Friday, workers wearing hard hats felled trees and built a new access road above the damaged area.
The plan is to pour concrete from trucks on the new access road down a conveyer system to prevent further erosion of the hill below the break, improving conditions until a new footing can be built for the canal.
A temporary pump may move up to 50 cubic feet per second of water by the end of the first week of June, still only one-ninth the capacity when the canal is functioning properly. A permanent fix could be done by the end of June, PG&E officials said.
The question facing the district is whether it can it keep water flowing – at least to sinks, toilets and fire hydrants – until then.
The legally required vote comes with no suspense. The agency has been urging conservation efforts for days.
"We really need to have drastic reductions," said David Breninger, general manager of the Placer County Water Agency.
The agency serves 150,000 customers, ranging from suburban residents in Roseville to farmers in the foothills. The agency provides treated water to suburban customers and untreated canal water to agricultural users.
Breninger is hoping the community will come together to conserve water until PG&E can fix the canal.
The scramble to conserve water began after a section of the Bear River Canal slid off a mountainside near Colfax on April 19. The canal, owned by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., is a crucial water source for the Placer County Water Agency and the Nevada Irrigation District.
Taking what little suspense there was out of the meeting, the agency board voted Thursday to implement an array of water restrictions designed to preserve what little water is available for foothills customers in and around Auburn.
The Tuesday meeting starts with a 5:30 p.m. information session. At 6 p.m., the agency board will also replay its Thursday vote to satisfy legal requirements, Breninger said.
The meeting will be held at the Gold Country Fairgrounds, Maurine Dobbas Placer Hall, 1273 High St., Auburn.
The agency is asking treated water customers with addresses ending in odd digits to water only on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from sundown to sunrise. Customers with even-digit addresses should restrict themselves to watering on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays during non-daytime hours.
Customers should also refrain from using water to wash sidewalks, driveways and parking lots.
"I ask that everyone reduce, conserve and use as little water as possible and to use it wisely, as every drop counts until this crisis ends," said Lowell Jarvis, board chairman.
The cuts are deeper for untreated irrigation water customers, who are already coping with the rolling canal shutdown. Small farmers around Auburn would see a mandatory 50 percent reduction, while the cut to commercial farms and golf courses would be 25 percent.
PG&E granted access to the canal break site Friday, in part to demonstrate how hard it's working to restore the canal water and the challenges of the site.
The 6-foot-wide, concrete-lined canal ran along a steep hillside. There is now a 50-foot gap where the mountainside slid out from under the canal. Without the support from below, the canal crumbled, sending the water cascading down into Bear River.
On Friday, workers wearing hard hats felled trees and built a new access road above the damaged area.
The plan is to pour concrete from trucks on the new access road down a conveyer system to prevent further erosion of the hill below the break, improving conditions until a new footing can be built for the canal.
A temporary pump may move up to 50 cubic feet per second of water by the end of the first week of June, still only one-ninth the capacity when the canal is functioning properly. A permanent fix could be done by the end of June, PG&E officials said.
The question facing the district is whether it can it keep water flowing – at least to sinks, toilets and fire hydrants – until then.
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