Water! — Smart meters, new wells, endless repairs, drought

  • [photo by LOWMWD—Lake of the Woods Mutual Water District]

    [photo by LOWMWD—Lake of the Woods Mutual Water District]

By Patric Hedlund, TME

Jonnie Allison and Rob Carruth are both family men with kids in local schools who often spend their days digging in the dirt to keep people in Frazier Park (Allison) and Pine Mountain Club (Carruth) blissfully unaware of how vulnerable we all are to changing weather patterns.

They are managers of the two largest residential water districts serving the Mountain Communities. Their jobs are to keep that water flowing when their customers reach to turn on a spigot. But both men are deeply aware of the challenges.

Rob Carruth (Mil Potrero Mutual Water Company) watched a thin snow pack cling
to the slopes of Mount Pinos above PMC this spring, grateful it lingered just a little longer than it had in 2020. But he knows none of that snow melt will show up in his aquifer soundings “for another …(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Lake of the Woods Mutual Water Company workers set up new piping and conduits to install smart water meters throughout their system, paid for by California grant funds for clean drinking water.

History: Otilia Herrera was watering her plants in Lake of the Woods on Tuesday evening, April 30, 2013 when Rafael Molina Jr. handed her an emergency water conservation notice. Molina went door to door alerting the community on behalf of the water company.

To see full stories with photos, please purchase a copy of the newspaper at many locations (click this link for a list) throughout the Mountain Communities.

Or, have your newspaper delivered via mail and include internet access. Just call 661-245-3794. Classified ads are FREE to paid subscribers! See front page at www.mountainenterprise.com for details.

The e-Edition is available now with full photos and stories at The Mountain Enterprise e-Edition. Select the 2021-0625 edition.

(subscriber login required)

This is part of the June 25, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.