Full Water Service Is Restored to South County

Water officials on Monday reopened a water main and restored full service to about 700,000 customers in south Orange County.

Residents from San Juan Capistrano to Irvine had been observing voluntary restrictions on water use ever since a 69-inch water main burst beneath an Irvine strawberry field Dec. 13, spilling 5 million gallons of water.

Crews of 20 to 40 employees worked around the clock to inspect the break and fabricate new pipe segments to replace the damaged parts of the line, which helps deliver imported water to Orange County.

“It’s been a long week, but we are back in service,” said Jill T. Wicke, the manager of water service operations for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which operates the pipe. “The first agencies started taking water at 1:12 p.m.”

So go ahead and wash the car, catch up on laundry and take hourlong soaks in the tub if you need to. But don’t try to overcompensate on lawn watering--the hard-packed clay soil common in the area won’t cooperate. Most of the water will run off.

“We’re asking that people don’t rush back to water their lawns on a daily basis . . . to make up for all the watering they missed in a week,” said Bob Muir, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Water District.

Instead, horticulturist Tom Ash of the University of California extension office in Irvine advised that watering for three minutes in the morning and three minutes in the evening is probably the best bet for thirsty lawns and landscaping.

Water officials believe computer software problems, inadequate training or human error probably caused the explosive break a week ago, but the exact reason hasn’t been determined. A full report on the events leading up to the break is expected at the Jan. 11 MWD board meeting.

The Metropolitan Water District, which provides water to 16 million residents from Ventura County to the Mexican border, bought the Allen-McColloch pipeline from the Municipal Water District of Orange County in 1995.

During the weeklong service interruption, South County residents reduced their water consumption by as much as 43% in some areas. Much of the decrease was attributable to mandatory restrictions placed on large-scale agriculture, but residents clearly did their part voluntarily.

Karl W. Seckel, an assistant manager of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, thanked residents for letting their cars go dirty and allowing their greenery to wither a bit. He also made a plea for continued frugality despite the repairs. “Water conservation works,” he said.

Before allowing local water districts to tap the pipeline again, MWD employees rebuilt and rewelded three segments of pipe, finishing early Saturday. The 60-foot-long replacement segment was then coated in concrete and gunite.