Tijuana Water Supply to Trickle Back Today : Full Service Is Not Expected Until After Holiday; San Diego Hookup, Crews Provide Aid

A ruptured aqueduct that shut off most water supplies to this city of more than 1 million should be repaired by early today, and water should begin flowing into the city by late in the day, authorities said Friday.

“It’s still an emergency situation, but the level of concern has been reduced considerably,” said Miguel Ravelo, a spokesman for the Baja California state public service commission.

However, water supplies are not expected to return to normal until late Tuesday--after the Memorial Day weekend, a major tourist period--because the repaired aqueduct must be tested, filled, pressurized and sanitized, Ravelo said. In the meantime, the city will continue to depend in part on sundry water supplies, including an emergency hookup with San Diego water lines.

Despite emergency declarations, officials said drinking water has not been threatened. Most residents in Tijuana, as in much of Mexico, rely heavily on bottled drinking water purchased from private distributors. The water from the aqueduct, although nominally purified, is used mainly for non-drinking purposes, such as washing and sewage flow.

Few Complaints Voiced

Residents here are accustomed to breakdowns in the water system and seemed to take the lack of water with few complaints. Commercial sales of water were brisk, and authorities warned against price-gouging, with rates said to be rising among water salesmen.

City officials, wary of losing tourist income, have been downplaying the potential impact of the water shortage, noting that many hotels and restaurants have their own holding tanks with reserve capacity or have the option of purchasing water. Tens of thousands of U. S. vacationers traditionally head south for the holiday weekend.

Many restaurant owners were scrambling to maintain their water supply to prepare for the weekend, purchasing water in bulk or trucking it in from other locations.

The emergency began Wednesday morning when an underground, 6-foot-diameter pipe ruptured and began spilling water, prompting an eventual shutdown of the aqueduct system, which carries water from the Colorado River and supplies more than 90% of the city’s non-drinking needs. Engineers from Mexico and the United States have been working around the clock to fix the metal-reinforced concrete pipe and expect to complete the job by about 3 a.m. Saturday.

San Diego crews equipped with gasoline saws designed to cut through concrete were helping, officials said.

Authorities called for conservation and opened a number of wells as several dozen state-owned trucks began distributing water, free to some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods. About 500 private trucks were also vending water on city streets, which is typical since many Tijuana residents are not connected to the city water system.

On Thursday, officials on both sides of the border arranged a hookup with San Diego’s water system, providing Tijuana as much as 13 million gallons a day--less than a third of Tijuana’s average daily consumption, but still a significant flow. The transnational link had been used previously to transport water to Tijuana but was abandoned a decade ago when Mexico completed its own hookup to the Colorado River.

The water sharing caused San Diego officials to ask residents to adopt voluntary conservation measures, such as limiting irrigation and washing of cars. Officials were hopeful that the diversion would not lower water pressure in San Diego, said Henry Pepper, San Diego’s assistant water utilities director, who noted that water was being pumped in from reservoirs to maintain the pressure level.

He said the diversion of San Diego water will continue until Tijuana supplies return to normal.