San Benito County’s biggest pipeline, which provides most of the
water for irrigation, automatically shut itself down Monday evening
because supply couldn’t meet customer demand, affecting service to
about 900 customers until the following morning.
Hollister – San Benito County’s biggest pipeline, which provides most of the water for irrigation, automatically shut itself down Monday evening because supply couldn’t meet customer demand, affecting service to about 900 customers until the following morning.
The San Benito County Water District manages the pipeline – called the Hollister Conduit – which carries water from the San Luis Reservoir through the city and into the San Justo Reservoir.
It mostly serves major agricultural enterprises. But it also supplies some water to the city of Hollister and the Sunnyslope Water District. Hollister didn’t report any problems, according to City Manager Clint Quilter. But the LESSALT water treatment plant overseen by the Sunnyslope district did temporarily shut down, said district’s executive director, John Gregg.
The pipeline automatically halted service Monday at about 4:45pm as customer demands surpassed water supply, according to the Normally, water from the San Justo Reservoir would serve as an emergency backup in case of a malfunction, and there wouldn’t be a problem, Gregg said.
By chance, though, when the system failed the water district had taken the reservoir off-line to do maintenance repairs, Gregg said. The district Monday had been responding to complaints that metal equipment at the reservoir was too corroded, he said.
“We were at an ‘at-risk’ condition when this problem occurred,” Gregg said Tuesday.
The district immediately began phoning its major customers – which also include Ridgemark Golf and Country Club, San Juan Oaks Golf Club and some schools – and requested they turn off their water.
After receiving a warning from the district, San Juan Oaks shut down its water supply and used its well system to make up the difference, according to general manager Scott Fuller. The failure, he said, didn’t cause any problems.
Gregg credited a customer emergency contact system with getting it back online by 9am Tuesday. Each customer – Gregg said there are 300 “major” customers – has a representative who can respond to the water district’s requests.
The pipeline is 54 inches by 60 inches and, aside from the primary water passage that starts at Casa de Fruta, has about 150 miles of smaller artery pipelines as well. Each of those pipes had to be shut off along with the conduit line before the district could re-pressurize the system.
The Hollister Conduit was funded by the federal government and was known as the San Felipe Project. The San Benito County Water District – its primary duty is management of the area groundwater basin – first started serving water from the pipeline in 1987, Gregg said.
The San Felipe water is essential to the local agriculture industry, he said. And to the best of his knowledge, this was the first time such a failure occurred, he said.
“Without it,” Gregg said of the pipeline, “this area would be in a state of water emergency.”
