Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Flooding Causes Damage of Up to $1 Million at Castaic Dam
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CASTAIC — Los Angeles city workers seem to have ignored a basic rule of rainy-weather etiquette during the recent storms: Shut the dam door behind you.
The Department of Water and Power is investigating why doors to a storage area at the Castaic dam were not sealed last week, allowing 40 feet of water to flood the storage area and causing up to $1 million in damage, DWP officials confirmed Thursday.
Tunnels carrying water from Pyramid Lake to Castaic Lake were being cleaned out by workers when the rainstorms hit, said Edward S. Solorzano, head of systems operation for the DWP.
Employees had been counting on concrete-lined flood-control channels to divert runoff from the surrounding hills away from the dam area, Solorzano said, but the rainwaters overflowed a protective berm on Jan. 8, spilling into doorways to the storage area, which had been left unsealed because workers needed to use them frequently, Solorzano said.
“If they had been bolted totally, the water wouldn’t have gotten in,” Solorzano said. “We’re not happy about it.”
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