City residents are cautioned to boil tap water before drinking until Thursday, February 8, according to a news release sent by Ben Lewis, general manager of Golden State Water’s Foothill District.

As many as 2,000 customers in Claremont are experiencing water service interruption today, Tuesday, February 6, due to what Golden State explains as a “higher-than-usual system demand during a planned maintenance shutdown at the Miramar Treatment Plant operated by Three Valleys Municipal Water District.”

The service interruption is impacting customers located north of Miramar Avenue to the northern city limits, according to GSW. However, the Claremont Club, which is located below Base Line Road on Monte Vista and more than mile south of Miramar Avenue, sent an email blast to its members stating the fitness club will be closed the remainder of the day.

Chaparral Elementary School, located on Mills Avenue south of Base Line Road and also well south of the area noted by GSW, is currently open but is without running water.

Rick Cota, executive director of the service center for the Claremont Unified School District, said the district found out about the water outage a little after 6 a.m. Tuesday morning.

“We immediately brought in three port-a-potties—one for staff, one for male students and one for female students—and two portable hand washing stations.”

He said the school district has an account with a portable restroom rental company in case of emergencies like this.

 “We also have emergency bottled water at the district service center, which we delivered 7:30 a.m.,” he said. “There is also plenty of water for the kids to drink.”

Although the district quickly remedied the dilemma, Mr. Cota expressed disappointment with Golden State.

“We wish the water department would have given us a heads up,” he said. “We have 700 kids up there so we probably should have been given notice about this. We’re prepared but notice would have been nice.”

Bevin Handel, public information officer for the city of Claremont, said the city did not receive advanced notice from Golden State but that Claremont’s new city manager, Tara Schultz, received notice from Three Valleys and GSW at about 10 p.m. on Monday night.

“Residents can go to the Hughes Center, the Blaisdell and Joslyn Centers, or the public library for water,” she said. “Basically any city facility is open to residents who need drinking water.”

Ms. Handel also said that Golden State sent out a precautionary “boil water” notice this morning.

“Residents north of Miramar Avenue from Mills Avenue east to Padua should boil their tap water for drinking and cooking,” she said. “Showering is safe, just boil water you will ingest.”

Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center urgent care, located at 1601 Monte Vista Ave., Claremont cannot see patients today due to the water service disruption, explained Yolanda, who spoke on behalf of director of operations Karen Levin.

PCHMC has contacted patients to reschedule appointments. Should a patient need to be seen today, they are urged to visit the Chino facility at 3110 Chino Ave., Suite 150B, Chino Hills or call (909) 630-7868 to schedule an appointment today.

Ludd Trozpek, who lives in the Padua Hills neighborhood, said Golden State Water Company delivered five one-gallon jugs of Crystal Geyser water to his home this morning.

“They were just driving down the street handing out water,” Mr. Trozpek said. “They had a truck out of Orange County going up and down the street.” 

According to Ms. Handel, Golden State estimates to restore water service sometime this afternoon.

“Crews are working to restore service as quickly as possible,” Golden State’s online announcement said. “We appreciate our customers’ understanding and patience.”

In the meantime, city residents are asked to conserve today.

“All Claremont customers who are not impacted by the temporary service interruption are asked to limit their water use to protect available water supplies for the area,” Golden State related online.

Margeaux Cardona from Golden State Water returned a morning call from the COURIER and indicated she is “not an approved company spokesperson,” but that she will get more information as soon as possible.

 “We’re providing information to residents on the website and social media as soon as we can.”

—Kathryn Dunn

editor@claremont-courier.com

[UPDATE: Golden State Water sent an update at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, February 6 from Ben Lewis, general manager of GSW Foothill District:

Approximately 2,000 customers in Golden State Water Company’s (Golden State Water) Claremont service area are experiencing a temporary water service interruption because of higher-than-anticipated system demand during a planned maintenance shutdown at a treatment plant operated by our local wholesale provider. A precautionary Boil Water Notice was issued to customers in the northern portion of the Claremont system, advising impacted customers to boil their water for drinking and cooking purposes until further notice. 

Water service is presently being restored to the system, and we expect to lift the precautionary Boil Water Notice as soon as system flushing and testing is completed.  The precautionary Boil Water Notice is estimated to be lifted on Thursday, 2/7/2018.  

Based on available information, it appears that the spike in system demand was likely tied to unseasonably warm conditions Monday and Tuesday. Based on data from our water supply facilities, the service interruptions were located in two areas:

1)      Primarily north of Miramar Avenue, to the northern City limits of Claremont and East of Indian Hill to the City limits of Claremont

2)      South of the 210 Freeway, North of Foothill, East of Stowe, West of Monte Vista & West of Corporate Center

Any customers who experience low pressure or a complete loss of water service should follow all precautionary boil water protocols as provided on www.gswater.com. In addition, impacted customers can request bottled water by contacting Golden State Water’s 24/7 call center at 1-800-999-4033.

Impacted customers and stakeholders were notified of the situation by phone as soon as we learned of the severity of the problem, and information is being updated in real-time on www.gswater.com and Golden State Water’s social media channels.

We want to thank Three Valleys Municipal Water District for their quick work to help our crews restore the water supply to the Claremont system. We apologize for any inconvenience to customers, and we appreciate their patience as we work to restore service.”