About 9,200 households in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch were without water on Wednesday after the Los Angeles Department of Water Power announced that emergency repairs were underway at a pump station.
The problem arose on Tuesday afternoon. DWP said as crews were making repairs at a pump station that connects to a 10-million gallon tank, a valve controlling the flow of water failed to open.
“As a result, the water flowing from the tank into the pipes serving the area was cut off,” DWP said in a written statement. “Crews are on site and are working as quickly and safely as possible to perform repairs to the valve.”
The agency said it is coordinating with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to resupply the tank and has requested support from a company that provides high-capacity pumps.
On Tuesday night, DWP announced the problem and said customers should urgently conserve water, but that high water demand coupled with the restricted water flow left the tank drained by about 7 a.m. Wednesday.
DWP said the affected area in the San Fernando Valley extends between Rinaldi Street in the south, Balboa Boulevard to the east and De Soto Avenue in the west.
DWP said it was distributing drinking water to customers at three locations in the Granada Hills and Porter Ranch area from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday:
- Holleigh Bernson Memorial Park, 20500 Sesnon Blvd, Northridge
- O’Melveny Park, 17300 Sesnon Blvd., Granada Hills
- The intersection of Tampa Ave. And Sesnon Blvd. on the border of Northridge and Porter Ranch
The department said the safety of customers and the community is “our top priority as we work quickly to make repairs and resupply water.”
DWP said it was coordinating with the L.A. Fire Department on a water contingency plan for the area, including providing water tankers while repairs are underway.
Crews have begun digging to access and repair the valve 20 feet underground, DWP said, and the repairs are expected to be completed on Friday.
Abbey Ronquillo, president of the Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council, said she learned about the pending water outage in an email Tuesday night from DWP, but she would have liked to see earlier and more specific communication from the agency via text or email to customers in the area.
“I don’t think that we were well informed,” Ronquillo said. “It’s unfortunate there was not enough warning for our community.”
“I would have wished that DWP would have given an earlier message to the community, more widespread, where you didn’t really have to dig deep in order to find this information,” Ronquillo said, “because a lot of homes will be impacted negatively from not having water, of course, especially in the summer months.”
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