RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - Rancho Murieta Community Services District Interim Operations Manager Travis Bohannon told the board April 15 that recent storm damage and a rise in major water main breaks show the district can no longer rely on temporary fixes to keep its water and wastewater systems running.

“A lot of band-aids got ripped off this weekend,” Bohannon said.

The storm that prompted his report hit between April 9 and 12, bringing high winds, lightning and nearly 2 inches of rain, with the worst conditions occurring April 11-12.

One failure was serious enough that the board added an emergency declaration to that night’s agenda. During a storm-related power outage, the generator at Main Lift South – a major wastewater lift station  – failed to start.

Bohannon said the unit had lost its prime and that “its whole priming unit burned up.” He presented a proposal to remove the damaged component for repair, a process expected to take about two weeks, while installing a backup generator on site to protect the lift station during additional outages. The estimated cost is $19,982.

In his monthly operations report, Bohannon described additional storm-related issues.

At the Rio Oso tank, a backup generator also failed to auto-start during a power outage. Staff later found corroded electronic control cards and connections. After cleaning them, the generator could run in manual mode but still would not reliably start on its own.

The district’s communications systems also faltered. Tank level signals from the Van Vleck Tank travel over direct-buried AT&T lines that Bohannon said fail several times a year.

During the storm, the tank’s level transmitter repeatedly failed, and three transducers blew under electrical stress. Because Van Vleck’s readings tell the treatment plant when to shut off, operators had to manually monitor levels and adjust operations to avoid overflows or wasting treated water.

Bohannon said the storm-related failures come as the district is also seeing an increase in major water main breaks, some of which are costly to repair. He cited a recent in-house repair on Pescado Circle that cost about $25,000.

He commended district staff for responding to the storm, telling the board they “did a great job out there.”

But Bohannon cautioned that the district has been “lucky” to avoid more serious consequences.

Bohannon urged the board to move forward with needed budgets and capital improvements, concluding: “We can’t kick the can anymore because there’s no can left to kick.”