Infrastructure Management Planning – Solution for Water-less CA Town

East Porterville is a rural city with a population of 6,700 – mostly poor Latino farmworkers; and this city has a big problem – there is no more water.

Nearly 1000 private wells that once delivered water to homes and small businesses have dried up, leaving residents with very limited options and no water.

A few dedicated residents have formed a water donation system where they give out bottled water to 654 households in the affected area.

These individuals are to be commended, of course, but is there anything else that can be done?

The Guardian reports:

“Without infrastructure, homeowners of East Porterville have to find water by their own means. Usually, that means drilling a new well, at a cost of $10,000 to $30,000, according to Lockman.

Payment options are limited. There are some grant programs available, but most cover only a third of the cost of drilling. Low-interest loans are available, but the exorbitant cost of drilling can make payments hundreds of dollars per month.

The county’s ability to help is also limited by cash. Installing a municipal water system in East Porterville would likely take the better part of a decade and cost up to $60m, Lockman said. And that cost only includes pipes.

Connecting to Porterville’s water is also tenuous. Some houses are simply out of the system’s reach, miles from the nearest connections; for others constructing a connection is too expensive.

The divide between Porterville and East Porterville, and even between neighbors with city water or dry wells, has created an aura of anxiety. There’s sniping between those trying to help, and bickering between neighbors. The topic of water can be delicate even between family members.”

People are doing the best they can and pulling together as a community, but in reality, the situation is only going to worsen as the summer approaches.

Inframanage.com observes that unincorporated areas, with private infrastructure, can be very problematic to municipalities and county’s when there is infrastructure failure.  

Private households reserve the right to their independence, and this limits the ability or jurisdiction of adjacent authorities to become involved.

Private infrastructure such as the shallow bores used in the East Porterville area can be a cost-effective solution for households up to the point where they fail.  

Measures such as installing household storage tanks, and carting water by tanker, can provide short term stop-gap solutions.

However, these are expensive longer term when compared to reticulated systems with deeper bore fields (assuming water is available).  As the article notes, individual household deep wells is also a very expensive solution.

The length of the California drought has, of course, made the situation worse.

Longer-term infrastructure asset management planning would involve the development of 50 year plus strategic water plans for Tulare County, and Porterville, along with water allocation and demand prediction models.  

The understanding gained from these plans and models could then be applied to developing the best long-term and sustainable solutions for the East Porterville area residents.  

This takes money and time to organize, often multiple years, which provides no immediate relief to the current situation in East Porterville.

What the East Porterville situation and the California drought, in general, show us is the need to do our infrastructure management planning and thinking before emergency situations develop so that you have good direction and go-forward positions ready when needed.