In keeping with tradition,

mistakes were made

Sometimes my keen reporter senses tingle and they lead me to chase down a hot story that was hidden in the gloaming. Other times, they lead me to a bright open field with a bunch of people standing around going, “What kept you? We knew all along.” I’m afraid that this particular story was in the latter camp. The secretive sounding “event” mentioned at the July meeting of the Camp Meeker Recreation and Park District which I found so mysterious turns out to have been reported in the Press Democrat on November 24^th, 2009, the day after it happened.

The event in question was a blowout of a 4” high pressure PVC pipe near Alliance Redwoods that cost the District $5,387.55 to fix, less than a tenth of the amount I reported earlier and not nearly so exciting or severe in its impact. (I misheard information that was mumbled quickly over a shoulder and didn’t follow up. Mea culpa.) Water users were on a boil notice for several days, standard procedure required by the county Department of Health after a pipe breaches and drains.

Yes, drains. Over 200,000 gallons of chlorinated water spilled into Dutch Bill Creek in the early morning hours of Monday, November 23, 2009. Afterwards, the creek water was tested by the county and they decided there had been no discernible impact. Even though the break was right across from the chlorination facility, the water had run down from the storage tank and had insignificant traces of chlorine. The Occidental water supply was unaffected.

Interesting to note that just prior to the event, Russian River Utility had replaced a leaking fire hydrant in the area and after the event, there was some talk about improving communication between the District, the operator and the engineer. Some Camp Meeker residents felt that they had not been notified soon enough, though the notice only involved 150 of the 360 residences.

Which brings up another error from my report. Sigh. I counted the customers on the list from the year-end report and came up with 93. The official number is 360, meaning that a $10/month increase in the water bill for each customer would add $43,200 rather than $11,160 and go that much further towards closing the budget gap for the foreseeable future.

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