Water from the Sierra Nevada watershed that feeds western Nevada County will be impacted by apparent outages at PG&E facilities that power the flow down the hill to communities below, according to reporting by The Union.
Local freelance videographer Juan Browne discusses the outages and how they will impact the flow of water as we approach spring and summer months.
NID has put together a plan to upgrade its infrastructure, as discussed at last fall’s Nevada County Community Forum with General Manager Jennifer Hanson, though the outage at the powerhouse affecting the flow of water is reported to be a PG&E-owned facility.
“Nevada Irrigation District (NID) customers will be asked to voluntarily cut back on their water use by 20 percent for the remainder of the year as a result of Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) unplanned outages on the South Yuba Canal and Spaulding Reservoir,” TheUnion.com reported.
“The Board of Directors for the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) declared a water shortage emergency, and authorized voluntary water conservation which passed with the approval of four Directors and one disapproving vote from Director Trevor Caulder at Wednesday’s Board meeting held online.
“’We recently purchased the South Yuba Canal, but we don’t own the whole thing. The first mile of it is PG&E’s facility to own and operate and maintain. Unfortunately, that’s the section that slid off the mountain,’ Armon “Chip” Close, Operations Manager for NID said.
“In early February, PG&E notified the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) that a portion of the South Yuba Canal suffered a complete collapse rendering the canal inoperable.
“Later during the first week of March, PG&E’s Spaulding 1 powerhouse suffered a failure rendering the Drum Canal inoperable.
“These two combined failures have rendered it impossible to move water into the Drum and South Yuba Canals. Both canals serve as the delivery conduit to provide water to thousands of customers in the District.”