Water Supply Needs After The Butte Fire

Sheep Ranch, CA – A community meeting in Sheep Ranch will focus on the impact of the Butte Fire regarding water supplies and getting grant dollars to upgrade an old storage facility in the area.

The Calaveras County Water District (CCWD) is hosting the meeting and wants feedback from customers in Sheep Ranch. One key topic, according to district spokesperson Joel Metzger, will be an old tank that holds about 75,000 gallons of water servicing customers there. He notes, “Firefighters did end up draining that tank all the way down while battling the fire.” Metzger notes the problem is that once drained, filling the tank can take a long time, and requires a boil order,  which lasted for three days after the Butte Fire.

Upgrading the infrastructure will be costly, which is why the district has sent out an anonymous Median Income Survey to residents in hopes of getting state and federal grants to lessen the economic blow. Metzger urges Sheep Ranch residents to complete survey saying, “If it turns out the income level is low and it is a disadvantaged community, then we should be able to secure quite a bit more grant funding.” He notes the reason that is so important to the area is because the district only has about 48 connections there, but it is expensive to repair or buy new equipment. Metzger stresses, “It is much more cost effective if we can make those big infrastructure upgrades using grant funds as opposed to using our general funds that come from throughout the whole county.”

The meeting will be held Friday October 30 at the Central Calaveras Fire Station in Sheep Ranch beginning at 7 p.m. (click here for the Sheep Ranch Community Meeting Flyer)