Amador County – The Amador Water Agency this week announced recommendations for local families to prepare their homes against water outages that may result from breakdowns and power outages this winter.

General Manager Gene Mancebo said the issue was especially important in the 35-year-old Central Amador Water Project service area. He said “most people don’t realize we are operating an aging water system upcountry that has broken down hundreds of times in recent years, so we’re urging our customers to be prepared just in case system failures cause a water outage this winter.”

He said “despite many breakdowns in recent years, crews work around the clock through winter conditions to fix the system before our customers run out of water – and that’s one of our top priorities this winter.”

Mancebo said dozens of times each year in rural Amador County, power outages cause potential interruptions of water service because electricity powers the water pumps. He said “in the upcountry area, mechanical failures also shut down the aging and overtaxed CAWP system, necessitating water conservation by homeowners.”

The AWA recommended steps to increase home safety this winter. Keep enough water on hand for drinking and cooking for an outage lasting up to 72 hours. Store water for pets and for flushing toilets. In case there is also a power outage, prepare an emergency kit with a flashlight, batteries, food, candles, and an emergency generator.

Ensure homes are fire safe. Fire hydrants may not work when water service is off and winter weather could delay firefighting crews. During any outage and 24 hours after an outage, AWA suggests customers either boil tap water or use bottled water for drinking and cooking.

On-call and emergency personnel are always available to respond to problems in the water systems, though recent budget reductions have reduced the overall number of AWA crews available to respond during emergencies, Mancebo said. AWA encouraged local residents to help by following neighborhood signs and announcements that may ask them to conserve water due to an electrical outage or mechanical failure.

Throughout the county, AWA operates four water systems, some of which are being operated past their estimated useful lives and are due for replacement, Mancebo said. Since 2004, upcountry CAWP water system has failed or been out of operation more than 200 times due to various causes. Those included 97 electrical or mechanical failures, 14 communications failures and 52 power outages. He said AWA is investigating options for improving CAWP to provide safe, reliable water service to all customers in Amador County.

Report water outages or leaks at (209)223-3018.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.