BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — California Water Service proposed an new infrastructure improvement plan to upgrade equipment, which they say would help them continue delivering safe, reliable drinking water to their customers.
- Video shows California Water Service repairing leak and upgrading water main to prevent future failures
- While your water rates could increase starting in 2026, California Water Service says it will save money in the long run by preventing leaks and water waste.
California Water Service responds to 300 to 400 leaks like this every year, but the company says in the 2024 infrastructure improvement plan, they're focusing on maintenance and upgrades to keep these spills from hitting your neighborhood.
A water leak in front of your house is not what you expect to welcome you home from vacation, but that's what happened to Kelly Hargraves.
"I was out of town. I came back, and it was a huge flood, and I made the phone call," Hargraves said.
Hargraves says she called Cal Water who responded to the leak in less than 48 hours.
"I've seen how deep that they've dug to get to the leak, so I don't know maybe the pipes are old," she said. "The neighborhood is old."
Cal Water says updating the old equipment is a main part of their 2024 infrastructure plan.
"We focus on areas that have had problems, so areas that have had a history of leaks, a history of failures, and we go in and do a programmatic replacement," Rafael Molina, the assistant district manager for Cal Water, said.
Under the proposed plan, rates would increase for the average customer in 2026 by $0.29 a day with most of the money going to capital improvements like replacing 78,445 feet of water main to prevent leaks and water waste, which Tamara Johnson, the district manager with Cal Water, says can cost customers even more money.
"If we can get out ahead of services that we've established as having a higher risk of failure and go ahead and replace them, then we don't have to react to these leaks," Johnson said.
The plan includes replacing an outdated electrical panel board at a Cal Water tank farm which distributes treated surface water across the city.
"Our system has to be able to provide adequate pressure and fire flow even given those elevation changes," she said, adding the changes in elevation in Bakersfield make the water system one of the most complex in the state.
Along with replacing this old generator to meet new regulations with a new 500KW generator.
"There are things like emissions that we need to take into consideration now, power, and what it's powering for, so it's a good example of what's going out with the old and then at the other site we were at, what's going in with the new," Molina said.
All the work expected in 2025-2027, Molina says would provide clean, reliable water sources to Bakersfield water users.
"I think if you don't address things quickly, they probably get worse," Hargraves added.
You need to report a leak or water waste in your area to Cal Water here.
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