About 9,200 households in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch were out of water Wednesday after the Los Angeles Department of Waters announced emergency repairs were underway at the pump station.
The problem occurred Tuesday afternoon. DWP said that the valves controlling the flow of water could not be opened as crews were repairing at a pump station that connects to the 10 million gallon tank.
“As a result, water flowing from the tank to the pipes serving the area was blocked,” DWP said in writing. “The crew is on site and works as quickly and safely as possible to repair the valve.”
The agency said it is coordinating with water districts in Southern California’s metropolitan area to request support from companies that refill tanks and provide large capacity pumps.
On Tuesday night, DWP announced the issue, saying customers should urgently save water, but its high water demand, coupled with the restricted water flow that had drained the tank by about 7am on Wednesday.
The DWP said the affected area of the San Fernando Valley is between Rinal Distreet in the south, Balboa Boulevard and DeSoto Avenue in the west.
DWP said it is distributing drinking water to customers in three locations, Granada Hills and Porter Ranch area, from 10am to 7pm on Wednesday.
Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park, 20500 Sesnon Blvd., Northridgeo’melveny Park, 17300 Sesnon Blvd., intersection of Granada Hills Tampa Ave. and Sesnon Blvd, Northridge and Porter Ranch border
The department said customer and community safety is “our number one priority as we work quickly to make repairs and water supplies.”
The DWP said it is coordinating with the LA Fire Department on its local water emergency response plans, including providing water providers with repairs underway.
According to the DWP, crews are beginning to dig in the 20-foot basement to access and repair valves, and repairs are expected to be completed on Friday.
Abby Ron Kiro, president of Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council, said she learned about the pending water outage in an email from the DWP Tuesday night, but she said she would have wanted to see faster, concrete communications from the agency, via text or email to local customers.
“I don’t think we were well informed,” Ronkiro said. “Unfortunately, our community didn’t have enough warnings.”
“I would have hoped that DWP would be more widespread in the community, in communities that didn’t have to dig deeper to find this information,” Ronkiro said.
Source link
