Volume 19, Number 1 Winter 2006

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OUR

FAMILY TO YOURS!

Back (left to right): Johnny Ramirez, Jim Theriault, Ed Copelin, Don Gary, Steve Kunkle

Front (left to right): Jim Ludy, Kelly Clark, Terry Lyons

Our District employees are working closely with our customers to help them prepare for the cold weather ahead. We would like our customers to enjoy the holidays with their family and friends without having to worry about frozen pipes. These are some reminders to check for around your residence or business to assure everything is protected from freezing temperatures. Each year most customers wrap their lines, but please remember the severe weather can affect the previous year’s wrapping program, so check previous wraps each year for any repairs needed. The water meter and the customer shut-off boxes are the initial place where water enters the property and sometimes can freeze. To prevent this from happening, put regular insulation or wood chips inside the boxes to help keep your water meter, piping and valves protected. Hose bibs or faucets around the yard should be wrapped top to bottom. It helps to dig around the hose bib riser to extend your protective wrap to 6 inches below the ground surface. At the local hardware store you can purchase the pre-form foam for wrapping around ¾ inch or 1 inch water pipes. Use duct tape around the foam to help hold it in place. Check for any water lines that may be hidden and exposed under the front or back decks. Some houses have water heaters located outside the house with a vented door to allow for proper air circulation. The cold water line coming in to the top of your water heater should be wrapped.

District proposes water management goals and a water conservation program for the installation of low-flow water fixtures for escrow sales.

The District selected two board members, Allan Morphett and Jim Billman, for the Evaluation & Assess Water Supply Committee (E & A Committee). They are working with staff to provide a long range water management plan. The District provides water from 25 wells. These wells are dependent on the annual rainfall and snow pack. We are dependent on receiving the normal rainfall of 27 inches a year. As many of you are aware, we have experienced dry years with less than normal rainfall which directly affects our water supplies. Recently we experienced a 3½ year water drought which impacted many of our Foster Lake wells. At that time we had to implement the Water Shortage Emergency Plan stages1-3. The committee and staff members have been working together to provide solutions to meet future water shortages in extreme drought conditions. One of the District’s goals is exploring areas for new wells sites. This plan includes locating two tentative well sites each year and drilling two test wells at the cost of $17,000 each to determine if these sites will be considered for a production well. All data from the test well is reviewed and after a positive verification, a new production well will be drilled each year. Unfortunately, water isn’t always located. This was the case in 2003 and 2004, where three test wells were dry. The District’s cost to construct a new 25 -30 gallon per minute production well is $100,000. We select new well locations based on previous groundwater information taken during a past drought. These locations will produce “drought-proof” wells that will continue to provide water in any condition. The six to seven year well development plan will add 6 new wells to our system and help us during a water shortage. The E & A committee is also working on another goal and objective for 2007. They are analyzing a workable water conservation plan. This proposed plan is to consider the installation of low-flow water fixtures during escrow sales. IWD would require that before an escrow sale is closed, an inspection to verify that the residence or business has installed low-flow water fixtures. These include aerators on the faucets, low flow shower heads and low flow toilets. The District’s commitment would be to consider increasing our current $50.00 toilet rebate to $100.00 and increasing the $50.00 rebate for high efficiency washing machines to $400.00. The water district already provides each customer a free conservation kit including aerators and a shower head. The estimated water savings for installing these toilets and showerheads will save 25 gallons per day for a household of three. If only half of the 100 homes a year in escrow install the low-water flow fixtures we would save 456,250 gallons of water a year. This proposed conservation plan will be a pilot program to help us determine if it will save enough water to assist us in managing another multi-year water drought situation. More information on this new program will be made available when we are ready to have a public hearing to receive public comment. The District has a free colorful 32 page brochure on “A Landscape Guide for Mountain Homes” for customers. The brochure addresses landscaping planning, installing your landscape, how to maintain your landscape, defensible space---landscape to reduce the wildfire threat, maintaining natural areas through backyard forestry, and a list of many drought tolerant plants that will survive in our local area.

DISTRICT’S FIRE HYDRANTS AND GATE VALVE PROGRAMS

In the past year our crew has completed painting and clearing the weeds around our 248 fire hydrants. Our new addition for our continued fire hydrant program is painting a color band around the hydrant head or bonnet. The two inch wide color bands will easily identify what the flow ranges are for each hydrant. We have hired an employee designated to paint color coded bands. A fire hydrant with a BLUE band represents flow ranges of 1,500gpm (gallons per minute) and more. Some of our fire hydrants have been tested to flow over 3,000gpm. A hydrant with a GREEN band represents flows between 1,000gpm to 1,499gpm. An ORANGE band on the hydrant is 500gpm to 999gpm and the smaller hydrants have a RED band which is less than 500gpm. You may see our employees flushing fire hydrants in your neighborhood. We are scheduled for a hydrant flow test by ISO in November, 2006. Idyllwild Water District water system has a Class 4 rating which is established every five years by ISO. This rating helps establish the risk factor and affects the local insurance premiums. The District added a new 600,000 gallon reservoir which will improve the class rating. Several new 6” fire hydrants were added and replaced some smaller 4” hydrants.

Our water distribution system gate valve program consists of operating and checking our 325 various sized gate valves. The program requires that every valve be operated at least twice to close and open the gate valve. The crew will repair any gate valve problems that are detected. After each gate valve has been checked and operated, the cap is painted blue.

FOSTER LAKE’S 420,000 GAL. TANK #3 WILL BE REFURBISHED

The District contracted with Joe Colon Coating, Inc., to remove all the interior and exterior coatings for the 420,000 gal tank. This project will be the fourth Foster Lake tank since 2002 to have been completely painted. The District budgets one tank each year to be painted. The cost for this tank coating project, including staff time, will be about $70,000.00. The District has 12 tanks and they all will be completed by 1214. In 2014 we will begin again by repainting the first tank. This tank program helps maintain and extend the life of our tanks by improving the water quality. Each tank is inspected by our crew for any internal or exterior repairs. Occasionally we may need to do some minor welding. We check the ladders and tank roof vents for any welding needs. All the roof vents are checked for proper screening. For tank #3 we welded a test outlet on the side of the tank for taking water samples. This will save time by eliminating the need to climb to the top of the tank for a water sample. In the photo above the closest tank is #2 which was completed last year. The current tank #3 project is located behind the brown building and tank # 2. Tank # 3 will receive the same exterior tan coating. This tank project will be completed and back in service in December, 2006.

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HYDRO-FLUSHING AND VIDEOING PROGRAM FOR SEWER MAINS

The District is continuing with the second and last phase of high pressure washing and videoing the 30,000 feet of IWD sewer mains. This photo is Houston Harris’ vacuum truck performing the contracted work for IWD. The District has a total of 60,000 feet of sewer collection mains. Houston Harris performed the first phase last year to pressure wash and video the district’s 30,000 feet of sewer mains. This program removes any blockages caused by tree roots and removes grease buildup or blockage. The videoing will show these problems and if there are any cracks in sewer mains due to tree roots located under the sewer mainlines. We can see if there are blocked customer sewer laterals. We can then inform them about pending problems before they have a serious backup in their sewer lateral. We will compile a list of District repairs as noted from the 60,000 feet of video footage. These repairs will be done or budgeted depending on the repair costs. The District’s grease interceptor/F.O.G. (Fats, Oil & Grease) program has required seven local businesses to install new grease interceptor units. The sewer videoing program has shown us that the District’s F.O.G. program is working to eliminate the Fats, Oil & Grease from the sewer system. Our F.O.G. program prevents any major sewer main blockages. The ongoing program allows our sewer plant to operate more efficiently and protects our environment. We want to thank the businesses for their co-operation by installing these grease interceptor systems to help keep our sewer system clean.