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Water pipeline shut down Wednesday

For 10 hours on Wednesday, Sept. 19, a main water supply pipeline that provides water to the city of Sonoma and the Valley of the Moon Water District – also known as the Santa Rosa aqueduct – will be temporarily shut down. 

  Despite the shutdown, residents will still be able to utilize water as usual because work crews have developed a coordinated plan to ensure no service disruptions. 

  The brief shutdown is necessary to replace a failing 36-inch isolation valve in the Santa Rosa aqueduct and to prepare for a $3.2 million partially federally funded hazard mitigation project to upgrade the Santa Rosa aqueduct where it crosses the Rodgers Creek fault.  The Water Agency has notified all of its wholesale water contractors and each is making preparations to ensure they have enough water storage to provide drinking water to their communities. 

  The existing aqueduct pipeline was built in 1959 and studies conclude that it could fail if a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on the Rodgers Creek fault were to occur. The Santa Rosa aqueduct is a major part of the Water Agency’s water transmission system that delivers drinking water to more than 600,000 residents in portions of Sonoma and Marin counties. 

  The FEMA grant was successfully secured after the Water Agency conducted a natural hazard assessment of its water transmission system. From the assessment, a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan was adopted, to better secure water supply facilities when natural disasters occur.

  This plan is now being reviewed and updated and the public has until Friday, Sept. 28, to provide input at www.sonomacountywater.org/secureourwater; or a copy may be viewed at the Water Agency’s Administration Building, 404 Aviation Blvd., Santa Rosa.