News Update: 'Boil Water' Order Still in Effect for Phillips Section of Lebec County Water District

BOIL WATER ORDER PHILIPS ZONE.
This dispatch from the Lebec County Water District is still in effect, as of December 28.

Failure to Follow This Advisory Could Result in Stomach or Intestinal Illness

Shortly before December 18, 2009, one of our booster pumps failed. This caused our storage tank to overflow and one of our distribution lines to leak in the Phillips Zone. This is a three inch water main that affects the properties starting at Phillips booster pump on Castac Valley View Road, continuing to the properties north of 637 North Chimney Canyon, then continuing to properties located on Plateau Court, then to properties on Roads End Point and finally to properties located on Mesa Valley Road, according to Chris Holland, the water distribution operator. There are nine homes without water, three with low pressure and with another 11 affected which have uninterrupted water, but on the same pipeline.

Due to the booster pump failure, several customers in the Phillips Zone have not had uninterrupted water since December 18, 2009. To fix this problem, we have replaced the booster pump and are now looking for the leak in our distribution system. We hope to have this problem fixed by December 22 or 23, 2009 after locating the leak. Once this issue has been resolved, all customers in Phillips Zone should have water with adequate pressure.

Loss of pressure that a portion (Phillips Zone) of our distribution system is currently experiencing may cause possible contamination of the water supply by potentially harmful microorganisms. As discussed above, we are working on fixing this problem. After completion of this work, we will be disinfecting the distribution system with the help of our certified distribution operator. Steve White from Skookum H20 Monitoring will be collecting special bacteriological quality samples after flushing to verify the bacteriological quality of the water being supplied by Lebec County Water District. However, this alone is not adequate to protect public health. Therefore, the California Department of Public Health in conjunction with the Lebec County Water System are advising the affected customers of Phillips Zone that are served by our Water System to boil their tap water or use bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes as a safety precaution.

All tap water used for drinking or cooking should be boiled rapidly for at least 1 minute. This is the preferred method to assure that the water is safe to drink.

You will be notified when it is no longer necessary to boil your drinking water.

Upon return of water service, if your water looks cloudy or dirty, you should flush the line until the water appears clear and the water quality returns to normal. Do not be alarmed if you notice a chlorine taste or smell in your water since chlorine is used to disinfect the lines after leaks and/or water outages occur.

For more information call:

Please call Jaime Guinn with Lebec County Water District at (661) 248-6872 or the California Department of Public Health at (661) 335-7315.

________________________ Date: __December 21, 2009_____
Jaimie Guinn, Secretary
Lebec County Water District
 

This is part of the December 25, 2009 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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