Tulloch Emergency Water Project Moving Forward
Copperopolis, CA — Local water officials now say that Copperopolis area customers have no need to worry about service, come September, if Lake Tulloch waters are drawn low.
The Lake Tulloch intake pipe extension project is moving forward — and is on schedule to be complete by fall — before any take down of reservoir water levels, states Calaveras County Water District (CCWD) spokesperson Joel Metzger. More good news, the latest cost for the undertaking has been reduced from over a million dollars, as previously reported, to somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000. According to Metzger, a new design is allowing the district to buy pumps that can be manufactured more quickly than the highly custom pumps that were once thought to be required.
“The estimates have been changing because we have been looking at different designs,” Metzger explains. He adds, “Other savings are coming from finding a low enough spot in the reservoir closer to the existing pump station. If the reservoir does end up going down, we are aren’t going to have to run as much pipe as we once thought.” Additionally, project engineers have come up with an alternate way to float the pumps in for installation by using deep divers instead of a crane or barge. “Again, this may change before it’s finalized,” he states. “But we continue to work with the state and are looking for [drought-related] emergency funding to fund part, if not all of this project.”
