McCloud urges residents to stop watering lawns because town could run out of water

MCCLOUD, Calif. — McCloud has been working on replacing their Mud Creek pipeline over this last year, they were given a $4.2 million state grant to replace the water pipeline, which KRCR's Sam Chimeni reported on back in July. On Thursday the McCloud Community Services District (MCSD) announced that the pipeline has been replaced! But that doesn't mean their water conservation efforts are over, in fact, they are more prevalent than ever.

There was a delay in the replacement back in April due to flooding in Mud Creek, where they had to shift to a plan B to try and protect lower springs from the flooding.

Now that the pipeline is replaced, the water storage tank needs to be cleaned before this project can be completed, but in order to clean the tank, it must first be drained.

Draining the tank leaves the spring as McCloud's only source of water, which is why MCSD put out a press release, to stress the importance that there can be no use of water for irrigation from October 7 to October 14.

When people are watering their lawns, the town is using more water than the springs can produce." says McCloud Community Services District, "If this happens while we are cleaning the tank, the town will run out of water during peak use times.

In the past, MCSD says their springs were producing five times as much water as they are seeing now. Conserving water had not been a concern in the city of McCloud, therefore citizens of McCloud got used to being more relaxed with their water conservation and fell into habits that caused them to use more water when it seemed like their springs has unlimited use.

According to MSCD, the intake spring used to bring in an average of 4,000 gallons of water every minute, now that same spring is only bringing in 900 gallons a minute.

Where the two Elk Springs combined averaged 3,700 gallons per minute in the past, these springs are only producing 1,200 gallons per minute in 2022.

What does this mean? Why are these springs producing less and less water? Well, MCSD says that this issue is due to the town using more water than the springs are producing, resulting in having to use the tank's reserve to make up the difference.

During this 7-day period when the tank is empty, there will be no water reserves.Therefore,abiding by the MSCD notice to halt all water irrigation at that time, is detrimental.

MCSD says they greatly appreciate the ton's cooperation and patience as they dealt with this summer's water crisis in McCloud. They say that once the tank is cleaned and disinfected, they will be able to bring it back online and provide further details regarding outdoor irrigation. They also say to watch out for notices on your bills on the MCSD website.