Cutting power may hit water
PG&E shutoffs could affect taps and toilets
PG&E’s plan to prevent wildfires with widespread power shutoffs means no lights, no refrigeration and no internet in many parts of California.
It could also mean limited use of toilets and taps, an inconvenience that water and sewer districts across the state are scrambling to address before a blackout comes and nature calls.
Utilities, including several in the Bay Area, simply don’t have the backup power to replace the electricity that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. normally provides for water delivery and sewage treatment. The agencies are trying to make their operations more energy efficient and adding alternative power sources in case the cord is cut, but it may not be enough.
Already agencies are warn
ing customers of possible water shortages and sewer backups. A loss of water, or drop in water pressure, could also be problematic for firefighters needing to douse any blazes.
“This is a big challenge,” said Dave Eggerton, executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies, a trade group representing hundreds of utilities. “It’s operationally challenging, it’s very expensive, and some of our member agencies are incurring explosive costs.”
PG&E began shutting off power to rural areas last year on warm, windy days to reduce the risk of an electrical line sparking a wildfire. Company lines have been blamed for igniting numerous blazes in recent years, including the deadly Camp Fire in Paradise in November.
This year, PG&E announced that it would be expanding the precautionary shutoffs to include the company’s entire Northern California service area. The power provider warned that outages could last two days or more.
While many of the state’s utilities have backup power to draw water from key supplies, say a reservoir or a well, and to run their sewage treatment facilities, the alternative power sources are not typically designed to last multiple days.
Additionally, some districts don’t have enough backup electricity to power the pumps that move water and sewage to where it needs to go. Many deal with sprawling service areas with hundreds of miles of pipeline.
“It’s going to be an ordeal,” said Rick Rogers, manager of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where most of his 30 pump stations that help get water to more than 23,000 people don’t have backup power.
The district has a handful of portable generators, which are used to run the occasional pump that loses power during a winter storm. But with a widespread outage, like what’s expected during PG&E shutdowns, the district would have to prioritize which pump stations get power, first trying to get water to the elderly and people with “critical needs.”
The district’s board of directors recently approved the purchase of eight new generators, some of which may cost more than $100,000. However, the money won’t be available until next year. Making matters worse, PG&E deems the district’s service area, which includes the wooded communities of Boulder Creek and Scotts Valley, to be at high risk of a shutoff this year.
“We’re sending out flyers, putting ads in papers, requesting people not to use water during outages,” Rogers said.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves 1.4 million people, has begun a similar conservation campaign. Residents in the fireprone Berkeley and Oakland hills get much of their water from local tanks, which are filled by pumps, not all of which have backup power.
“We want to make sure we have water in those tanks not only for our customers but for firefighters in those areas,” said Andrea Pook, spokeswoman for the district.
EBMUD is asking people to use less water during a power shutoff while trying to get more generators in place to maintain adequate water supplies. The agency’s board has signed off on an agreement to rent 29 generators for four months this year at a cost of $409,000.
In the Sierra foothills, the El Dorado Irrigation District east of Sacramento has already spent $800,000 on additional generators. Not only will the backup power help keep water flowing to the 129,000 people in the district’s service area but, just as important, it will keep sewage moving.
The district’s sewage system relies on a series of lift stations to push waste across mountains and valleys to one of five treatment plants. The stations require power to operate.
“Water may stop (running) during an outage, but folks still use their toilet,” said Jesse Saich, spokesman for the agency. “So that stuff is still going to be coming down the hill, so to speak.”
To be ready for possible sewage backups, Saich said the district would be operating its full fleet of pump trucks to manually remove waste during a power shutdown if need be.
PG&E has so far initiated three limited shutdowns because of wildfire danger. But when and if there are future blackouts is uncertain. The company’s decision to turn off the power hinges on several variables, including the weather forecast, humidity and forest conditions.
The power company has said it’s more likely to cut supplies in areas with the greatest fire risk, though any place could lose electricity because transmission lines targeted for shutoffs may pass through not only hazard spots but other places.
Company spokeswoman Andrea Menniti said in an email that PG&E was working to identify and minimize impacts to “customers who provide critical services,” which include water suppliers. But there are no guarantees.
The latest power shutdown was during hot weather last month, and utilities affected by the outage said they learned a lot about what can go wrong.
In Oroville (Butte County), which went dark June 8, managers of the community’s private water company said they were able to keep water flowing during the brief and geographically limited blackout. But the outage exposed limitations of the supplier’s batteries used for computers that control water delivery and generators used to run air conditioning in rooms with valuable electronics.
“It was a good exercise that helped us identify a couple small areas that we need to shore up,” said Mike Mares, a vice president of Cal Water, which manages water supplies in more than a dozen Northern California communities.
The Cobb Area Water District, a small utility in the hills of Lake County, didn’t have such a positive experience when PG&E shut off its power last fall. Water officials rushed out to rent generators for three days, costing the district more than $10,000.
“We paid huge delivery fees, due to it being a Sunday, (plus) fuel and overtime to the employees of the district,” General Manager Ben Murphy said.
A month later, PG&E warned the Lake County district of another possible power shutdown, and again the district rented generators. This time the outage never materialized, but the agency was still out $6,000.
“These (shutdowns) are extremely hard,” Murphy said. “They are shutting the power off during wildfire season, I get it. But to shut off the power to the one thing that fights the fire — water — I really don’t get that.”