Water Customers Will Need To Conserve

Pacific Gas and Electric is preparing for their annual main water canal maintenance shutdown.

This P G and E canal carries 95 percent of the water that supplies Tuolumne County residents served by Tuolumne Utilities District. The week-long outage, beginning Monday, October 14, will affect nearly 20,000 TUD customers.

Scheduled maintenance on the vintage ditch system has been taking place for many, many years at the same time each year – in the fall, early winter.

TUD General Manager Tim McCullough said it´s crucial that residents limit their water usage during the week, as last year water reserves dipped to critically low levels.

“We sure would like to see the cooperation from the water users this year to help us reduce the possibility of running out of water in isolated areas,” McCullough said.

McCullough explained during the week, TUD will be operating on storage reserves and back up wells. He is hoping residents conserve water and that the weather cooperates as well.

“We have no way of predicting what the weather will or will not do off into next week, but right now, with the cooling trend coming in, the weather sure is working in our favor,” he said.

The water should be flowing once again Monday, October 21.

McCullough says it´s crucial that residents limit their water usage, including stopping outdoor watering and turning off automatic sprinkler systems for the week.

Main areas impacted by the water shut off include Big Hill, Brentwood, Cedar Ridge, Confidence, Crystal Falls, Mi-Wuk, Mono Vista, Ponderosa, Ridgewood, Sonora Meadows, Soulsbyville, Sugar Pine, the Tuolumne Rancheria area, Twain Harte, and Willow Springs, among others.

“As long as we are dependent on a ditch system for delivery of water to our customers, the annual maintenance of those ditch systems is a necessity,” he said.