SANTA CRUZ >> As rivers and creeks across Santa Cruz swelled to eye-popping levels Monday, the city of Santa Cruz was faced with a paradox: an emergency water shortage.
The Santa Cruz Water Department, after pinpointing a major leak in one of its main delivery pipes, is asking customers to cut use by about a third for one week, through next Monday, by postponing nonessential uses such as laundry or automatic dishwashers.
Early Monday, the Newell Creek Pipeline — the city’s major artery between its Loch Lomond Reservoir in Felton and the Graham Hill Water Treatment Plant — sprung a 1,500-gallon-per-minute leak. The crack, in an underground pipe segment along Pipeline Road in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, was diagnosed between 4 or 5 a.m. Monday and isolated immediately, said Santa Cruz Water Department spokeswoman Eileen Cross. Water ran out of the pipeline for about an hour, for an estimated loss of 90,000 gallons, Cross aid.
“We don’t really know what caused the problem,” Cross said. “There are some hypothesis that there was some kind of slide in the area.”
Though the city’s primary water sources are surface sources such as the San Lorenzo River, some of the supply becomes too turbid to treat and is unusable during storms such as this weekend’s, Cross said. In those instances, the city turns to its reserve, held at Loch Lomond Reservoir, which has been providing customers about 5 to 6 million gallons of water daily for the past several days, Cross said. With the Newell Creek Pipeline now shut, daily water production will be reduced to about 4 million gallons, or about two-thirds the winter’s norm, and come primarily from Liddell and Laguna creeks and from some wells, Cross said.
Though the San Lorenzo River’s turbidity may subside prior to the pipeline repair, Cross said, another storm is forecast in the upcoming days that could continue to limit the water supply.
“We have no way to knowing what that storm will produce or any potential damage that could happen from that storm. Rather than wait and see, we felt it was much more important to get ahead of this,” Cross said. “It’s a big imposition that we hate to do. Fortunately, it’s a short-term solution.”
Countywide, fears of the weekend’s storm impact and potential flooding ended with only Corralitos Creek near Watsonville topping its banks. By Monday — though more rain was forecast for the coming week — officials were saying the worst of the storm had come and gone, leaving mud and debris in its wake.
Corralitos Creek crested about a foot above flood stage around 5 p.m. Sunday, when it reached about 12.4 feet, according to the National Weather Service San Francisco Bay Area/Monterey office. By 11 a.m. on Monday, the creek had dropped down again to nearly 6.7 feet.
Shortly after 1 p.m. Sunday, an 11-year-old boy discovered the dangers of the heavy-flowing water leading into Corralitos Creek while he and family and friends were out walking in the area of Holohan Road and Laken Drive. While poking a stick into water running along a 4-foot-wide culvert, the boy stepped onto piled-up debris and slipped into the fast-flowing water rushing toward an underground pipe, said Watsonville Fire Capt. Kirt Vojvoda on Monday. While the boy’s mother jumped in after him, the boy’s 13-year-old brother held on to him.
A deputy responded to the family’s 911 call and jumped into the culvert’s chest-deep water as well, and pulled the mother to safety, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Clark. Watsonville firefighters and two more deputies joined the rescue shortly afterward, eventually pulling everyone to safety. Though there were no serious injuries reported, the 11-year-old boy and a firefighter whose leg was sucked into the pipe were taken to an area hospital for precautionary measures, Vojvoda said.
“That whole area had flooding, on East Lake, College, and that whole area was underwater last night,” Vojvoda said. “Normally, we wouldn’t send out firefighters in there or recommend going in there, but when you’re faced with imminent danger, they’ve got to do what they’ve got to do. It could have turned out very very bad.”
Meanwhile, the National Weather Service has issued a flash flood watch for the area through Tuesday. In addition, a king tide warning is in effect for coastal areas from Davenport north through Thursday evening. The Weather Service has also issued a high-wind watch from Tuesday afternoon into the evening, with the strongest winds along the immediate coast and in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where gusts from 40 to 55 miles per hour or as high as 70 miles per hour in localized areas are possible.
COUNTY WEATHER FORECAST
Tuesday: High winds, flash flood watch. Rain, up to an inch in coastal areas, up to 4 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains. High: 58, low: 50.
Wednesday: 50 percent chance of rain, less than an inch. High: 56, low: 44.
Thursday: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy. High: 54, low: 39.
Friday: Mostly sunny. High: 57, low: 42.
Source: National Weather Service
STORM RAINFALL
Unofficial rainfall totals for Santa Cruz County communities from Friday to Monday afternoon:
• Boulder Creek: 8.66 inches.
• Ben Lomond: 6.73 inches.
• Scotts Valley: 6.13 inches.
• Live Oak: 4.79 inches.
• Corralitos: 4.13 inches.
• Davenport: 4.53 inches.
• Soquel Creek At Soquel: 4.37 inches.
• Felton: 4.25 inches.
• Watsonville Water Works: 4.16 inches.
• Capitola: 3.34 inches.
• Santa Cruz: 3.13 inches.
Source: National Weather Service
