A newly released report
from the San Mateo County Grand Jury is raising concerns about what happens to
the water supply when a major earthquake hits.
The infamous San Andreas
fault cuts a path right though San Mateo County and the San Gregorio Fault
skirts the coast line[sic].
At Cal Water Bayshore,
which provides water to San Mateo, South San Francisco, San Carlos and Cola the
threat of an earthquake is always on managers minds.
"We want to reassure
our customers that we're not taking a blind eye to this situation and we are
preparing for it and practicing on an on-going basis and it's not just today -
we have been doing this for quite some time," said Ross Moilan, a district
manager for Cal Water Bayshore.
The grand jury found that
many of the 15 water districts do not have enough backup water or fuel to keep
the water moving for 72 hours after a quake.
"I think in various
scenarios, we're from one to three days with backup supply. But, again as those
days are going on - we're trying to make repairs get things place and hopefully
restore normal supply," Moilan said.
For that scenario, Cal
Water says they have backup plans from their other 23 districts around the
state.
"We'll make the call
and we'll start getting resources coming - resources will be people who can fix
pipes, can operate pumps. They'll be bringing in portable power units that can
power our pump stations," said Darin Duncan, Director of Field Operations
for Cal Water.
Duncan says the agency is
constantly retrofitting and implementing lessons learned from quakes like Loma
Prieta.
"What we found on
that one is that we had rigid connections on these million gallon tanks and as
everything started oscillating the pipes would shear off and you can't control
that and you lost all of your emergency storage."
So, Cal Water replaced 700
storage tank connections.
"Everyone of them has
what we call a flexible expansion joint - either double ball or they look like
flexistraws."
The report also said that
San Mateo County Emergency Management should be coordinating with more water
districts.
CBS San Francisco
Andria Borba
August 9, 2022
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