LUCERNE — An odd-sized pipe that sprung a leak on Friday spilled an estimated 30,000 gallons of water in the vicinity of the 4000 block of Country Club Road before California Water Service Co., the Lucerne supplier, was able to staunch the flow Monday afternoon with the right-sized replacement pipe.
Bill Koehler, the Redwood Valley district manager for Cal Water, said the company was unable to obtain a length of replacement pipe to patch the antiquated Lucerne water supply line until Monday.
He said the leaky pipe was probably installed about 1924 and, from the outside, was 3.3 inches in diameter, which is hard to find. Most main pipes in a water system today, he said, are 4.0 inches in diameter from the inside and 4.8 from the outside.
Koehler said that pipe of the size needed for patching was eventually found in Santa Rosa and the patch was completed by 2 p.m.
“If you reach down underneath you can feel a crack in the body (of the pipe). There”s no way we can get a repair clamp on it,” Koehler said Monday morning as he oversaw workers at the site. “What we have to do is cut that pipe out.”
Koehler said that vines growing around the leak indicated it had been there a long time and added that Cal Water finds leaks in the aging pipes about once a week.
The leak exacerbated existing aggravation among Lucerne water users over a pending astronomical hike in their Cal Water bills.
“Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon when I called them they said they couldn”t fix it because they didn”t have the part they needed,” said Gloria Day, a homeowner in Lucerne”s 4000 block of Country Club, whose home is located across the street from the leak. “It”s a miracle how they found it first thing Monday.”
Koehler acknowledged that inflated weekend labor costs factored into waiting until Monday even with water flowing out of the leak at 10 gallons a minute by his estimate.
“I always have to look at costs,” he said. “Where is the water going? How much water are we really using? Is a (leak) going to damage someone”s house? And of course it”s our customers” money.”
He added that he, personally, had kept a close eye on the leak, visiting the Country Club location at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning and again on Sunday, “making sure we had all the repair parts they needed in order to do this today (Monday).”
Day, meanwhile, kept a wary eye on the leak.
“This whole thing is crazy,” she said. “All that water and I have a dead lawn. Our rates are going to go sky high, so we are all trying to conserve. I have a friend who, when she brushes her teeth, saves the water to put on her plants.”
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordsmith@mchsi.com.
