HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE— An unusual foggy morning greeted the ascending cement trucks on Eagle Rock Road. Earth moving equipment that has been active for weeks stood by as the long arm of a pump truck angled up into the mist and elbowed down into the mandala-like footing form constructed on the site. Adjacent to the new activity the nearly 60-year-old redwood tank that has been serving the community since its inception spurted water from a high leak above a triangle of seeps that soak the damaged wood below. Victor Gonzales, Isidro Rodrigues and Jesse Smith from C.V. Larsen Company out of Lakeport were ready for the pour to begin.
Progress on the Hidden Valley Lake community water infrastructure upgrades has reached a critical milestone. Months of extensive surface preparation followed by form-building completion allowed the concrete pour for the foundation of the west tank of the HVL Community Service District (CSD) Unit 9 Tank Replacement Project to take place on Friday, May 17.
The old redwood tank on the site is to be replaced by two 250,000-gallon steel tanks and new mechanical control systems that will greatly increase the capacity and reliability of water storage for a large swath of homes in the 6,000 resident Hidden Valley Lake HOA outside Middletown.
The HVL CSD, as a state agency independent of the HOA, was able to access funding through a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The water storage tank replacement mitigates against the risk of drought and wildfire as it will be built out of non-combustible steel, qualifying it for funding for both drought and fire resilience. The vastly increased capacity of the new tanks will be more than adequate to meet current water demands and includes enough water to aid in fire-fighting efforts in case of wildfire.
The ground breaking ceremony for the project occurred on October 30 with local, state, and federal officials in attendance. The west water tank will be the first erected and is scheduled to begin operation in June. Once the new tank is operational, the old redwood tank will be removed, a new footing poured and the east tank will be installed. The entire project should be completed by August. Additionally, the HVL CSD is installing permanent generators at water pumping stations as a part of the Backup Power Reliability Project. This will ensure that the community and firefighters will be able to access the water they need in the wake of Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS), or other outages.
