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The Labor Day weekend heat wave and its effect on the growth of algae, as well as leaks discovered in two residential drinking water lines, interrupted supplies of drinking water for customers of the Skylonda Mutual Water Company and led to a requirement that some customers boil their water before using it.
The “operation problems,” which customers were notified of on Sept. 7, are believed to have been “rectified,” and the holding tanks are being refilled, water company board member Larry Freeman told the Almanac in an email on Saturday, Sept. 16.
Biological testing, which takes a minimum of three days, is required by the state before lifting a boil-water notice; the requirement affected only “a few customers at the top of our system” who had little or no water pressure, Mr. Freeman said.
The water company, a nonprofit that serves 157 homes in the Skylonda community as well as Alice’s Restaurant, opened an emergency water connection to the California Water Service Company (Cal Water), according to a Sept. 15 notice on the company’s website.
Alice’s, the only restaurant in the area that draws on the company’s water, was not affected by the boil-water notice, Mr. Freeman said.
The company advises customers with live fish at home to treat the Cal Water supply for chloramine, which is used to disinfect the water and is fatal to fish in aquariums and ponds.
Click here and here for more information on chloramine.
An algae bloom following the unusually hot weekend plugged the water filtration mechanisms, according to statements on the company’s website. “We have adjusted our processes and stabilized the system,” the statements say. “We are currently able to produce filtered water at near normal rates, but it will take several weeks to refill our tanks.”
The leaks were allowing an outflow of 21 gallons of water per minute, the statements say. “For sure these leaks were the major factor in the amount of time it has taken to get water back into the upper system and begin filling the tanks.”
The company advises that a notice will be posted on its website when testing is complete and the boil-water notice lifted.
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By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce
By Dave Boyce