"It's a beautiful piece of work;" McCloud nears completion of new water pipeline

For months, the town of McCloud in Siskiyou County has been at risk of losing a large portion of their water supply.

Flooding and an outdated water pipe brought grave concerns, but those concerns have been buried—literally.

Starting earlier this week, McCloud Community Services District began installing their new steel waterpipe 35 feet below were Mud Creek used to flow (the creek was diverted away from where the pipe was and now flows a different direction, away from town).

"It’s 100% different than it was a month and a half ago," said Amos McAbier, the GM for McCloud CSD. "And we’re really happy to be at this point. I think that we’re going to sleep well the next time we hear the mud flows coming down."

For those in McCloud, they can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. Heck, they may be through the tunnel, especially considering how the area looked back in July.

Thanks to some exemptions from state agencies, McCloud put some previous grant money to work; outwith the old, 1950's-era redwood pipe, and In with a modern steel pipe.

"I think two days after we had the exemptions, we were working, digging this out, getting ready to go, ordering pipelines," McAbier explained.

"No time to waste?" KRCR's Sam Chiment asked.

"No time to waste. We got it going, got it (the pipe) in," answered McAbier. "We got a great construction crew working on this. It was all emergency work, (and) our board members for the McCloud CSD have been great to work with; very supportive."

For over a decade, McCloud officials have wanted to bury this specific water pipe.

And now, after two consecutive summers of battling this flooding issue, their tireless work is near completion.

"It’s a beautiful... a beautiful piece of work," said McAbier. "I mean, everybody’s come together on this."

--

To report errors or issues with this article please email the editorial team.