Residents Wonder Why Contra Costa County Flushes Water Down Gutter Amid Major Drought
CLAYTON (CBS SF) -- Some Clayton residents are unhappy over the flushing of tap water down the drain by the same agency that tells them to conserve it.
According to Claycord.com, a Clayton resident recently observed the Contra Costa Water District opening a fire hydrant and running water in her neighborhood and down a storm drain.
It's a standard procedure in order for water districts to clean the pipelines and improve drinking water quality, but this resident saw it differently.
"It breaks my heart to see CCWD waste water up here on Keller Ridge twice a year," she said. "They purposefully release water via a fire hydrant and (instead of routing it into a tanker truck), they send it right into the gutter."
Although water leaving the treatment plant is clean and safe, it sometimes picks up tastes and strange odors as it passes through pipes before reaching the faucet. On its website, CCWD said the only way to clean the pipelines is by sending a high flow of water through opened valves and hydrants for a few minutes or longer, depending the pipe size.
"It is a balancing act between water quality and emergency preparedness that we are constantly monitoring," Jennifer Allen with the Contra Costa Water Disitrct told Claycord.com.
But it has residents wondering why the water can't be saved for other things.
Allen said capturing the water in trucks so it could be returned to the Contra Costa Canal or used for watering a park isn't possible.
The process of flushing water requires it to flow at a high velocity to properly remove sediments, making it hard to transfer to trucks.
Some residents still asked why there wasn't any notice beforehand so they could have grabbed some buckets to at least water their own lawns and plants.
Along with many water districts, Contra Costa has suspended routine flushing since 2014 and only reserves it for water quality needs or following repairs to water mains.
