Break in water main spurs call for additional conservation in Cambria
Cambrians woke up Christmas morning to find a lump of water-supply coal in their stockings: A break in the town’s water main transmission line that knocked out service to some residents around the San Simeon well site and prompted a request for conservation in Cambria.
That’s a problem that not even 5 to 6 inches of recent rain, with more in the forecast, could fix.
Until the problem can be fixed, the Cambria Community Services District is asking its ratepayers to conserve water above and beyond what they’ve already been doing during the drought.
General Manager John Weigold estimated early Saturday that temporary repairs could be complete within two weeks, work the district Board of Directors is expected to approve at an emergency meeting at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28.
At 4:52 a.m. on Christmas, the GM responded to a request for information that The Cambrian had sent about an hour earlier.
Weigold wrote, “The bottom line is that there is no interruption of service except for a very few customers in and around the San Simeon well site — those who draw water upstream of the water line break. We are working with those customers to provide temporary water accommodation.
“For the remainder of the community,” he continued, “there is no need to boil water or take any other extraordinary measures. We asked the community to conserve water use as we are temporarily operating solely from the Santa Rosa Creek well, which is not designed to singularly sustain the entire community for long periods of time.”
Staffers notified state agencies about the break “to keep them in the loop,” the GM added. “There may be permitting requirements that the district would need to fulfill after the project is complete.” Also, “staff is coordinating with State Parks for an emergency right-of-entry permit.”
Cambrians within the district draw water from wells adjacent to two area creeks located about five miles apart. Like water purveyors in the rest of the state, the CSD has been dealing with the drought but had so far not had to resort to levying penalties on customers who use more than their allotment under a declared Stage 4 water emergency.
As to what happens next, the GM wrote that “we are still in the information-gathering mode and stabilizing the situation,” and indicated that the information he was providing “may be subject to change as the district board meets and regulating agencies weigh in on the situation.
Water main break located near campground
In the early morning of Dec. 23, district water operations staff responded to a report from State Parks staff about a water main break near the San Simeon Creek Campground. The CSD’s San Simeon wellfield is adjacent to the campground.
District personnel identified the break as being in “the transmission water main that supplies water from the San Simeon well field to the town of Cambria,” Weigold wrote. “After turning off the well pumps and isolating the break” the staffers asked for assistance from an outside engineering contractor “to inspect the break and help develop solutions for a repair.”
He explained that, “the break is located in the marsh/wetlands area. Due to the natural conditions and the recent rain events, water-saturated conditions prevent any mechanized equipment from entering the site to repair the water main break.
Weigold elaborated: “The proposed scope of work is construction of an approximately 3,000-foot overland bypass of high-density polyethene (HDPE) pipe,” which “will lay on the surface over the marshland areas but will be trenched as it makes the connections to the existing main. The water line will be pressure tested and disinfected per the state water board standards prior to service.”
Work on the temporary repairs will begin as soon as the district board meets Tuesday in an emergency meeting to review all the collected data and approve the project.
He added that date for the meeting was set then to allow staff additional time to gather information and “develop plans and cost estimates” for the temporary-repair work Weigold estimated would take less than two weeks.
After those repairs are complete, the district will develop plans for more permanent solutions.
Note: The original version of this story had an incorrect date for the board’s emergency meeting. It is set for 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 28.
This story was originally published December 25, 2021 at 9:37 AM.
