Earthquake: The Long Road Back : 8,000 Simi Households Wait for Water Service to Resume

Since Monday’s earthquake, Simi Valley resident Jim Kiblinger has developed a new appreciation for a cup of coffee.

While most of the city’s residents awoke Tuesday to find running water restored to their homes, Kiblinger had to dip into his 300-gallon spa in order to make his morning brew.

About 8,000 homes citywide were without water late Tuesday, as workers rushed to repair cracked pipes and broken reservoirs. “We’ve had all the neighbors coming over,” said Kiblinger, who lives in the Pride housing tract in the elbow of Los Angeles Avenue and Kuehner Drive. “I keep my spa pretty clean; it makes some good coffee.”

Officials for the city, which provides water through a water district to about two-thirds of Simi Valley’s 120,000 residents, said they hoped to have service restored by late Tuesday to its 7,000 customers without service.

“We’re hoping people will be able to turn on their faucets without any problem within several hours,” Assistant City Manager Mike Sedell said late Tuesday.

About 1,000 Simi Valley residents served by a second water company, Southern California Water, were also without service.

The company’s reservoirs on Rebecca and Katherine streets were completely shut down, spokeswoman Charlotte St. John said.

“We really don’t have any idea what the extent of the damage is,” St. John said. “We’re just dealing with this one step at a time.”

In the meantime, the company was pumping water from its partially damaged Sycamore Drive facility, said Mike Gutierrez, director of water resources.

Water company workers opened a fire hydrant at Heywood Street and Bridget Avenue to fill containers for residents who needed water to bathe and flush their toilets.

And city workers gave out free drinking water at Santa Susana Park, Royal High School and at the city’s Metrolink station.

“We’re hoping this won’t go on much longer,” Gutierrez said.

Officials said successful delivery of water depends not only on the city and Southern California Water, but also on the ability of the Calleguas Municipal Water District to repair damaged feeder lines.

During the quake, air vacuum valves were ripped from Calleguas’ two main water lines. The district serves about 500,000 Ventura County residents.

Maintenance crews working around the clock have patched most of those valves, said General Manager Donald Kendall. But the district was still repairing cracks in the pipelines late Tuesday.

“The lines are damaged, but we have a good backup system,” Kendall said. “We are going to get things up and running pretty quickly.”

The district’s sole source of water, a filtration plant in Granada Hills operated by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, was shut down after the quake, leaving Calleguas with a two-week reserve supply in Simi Valley’s Lake Bard.

A pipeline connecting the Granada Hills plant to Ventura County was also severely damaged, Kendall said, setting off a chain reaction that could threaten Simi Valley’s water supply.

“The one lifeline link we had is gone,” Kendall said. “But if people conserve water, we should be able to make it through.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District said they hoped to have the line repaired by the end of the week.

Kendall said water with a brownish tinge is OK to drink, but all residents should boil their water, regardless of color.

“The water is safe,” Kendall said. “This is just a precautionary measure.”