Amid struggles to get a recently approved pipeline financing plan up and running, the Nipomo Community Services District on May 22 authorized spending almost $80,000 to perform emergency repairs on one of the district’s largest production wells.
According to a press release sent out by the district, Director of Engineering and Operations Peter Sevcik told the NCSD’s Board of Directors that the well developed two problems in recent months, which led to a complete loss of production.
Those problems include a misalignment in the 350-foot drive shaft that connects the electric motor on the surface of the well to a water pump mounted near the bottom of the well casing. Impellers (rotors designed to push water in a certain direction under pressure) inside the water pump are excessively corroded and need to be replaced.
Sevcik didn’t get back to the Sun before the paper went to press. District General Manager Michael LeBrun was out of the office when the Sun contacted him for comment and was unable to return phone calls.
The well is currently offline, but authorization of the funds will get it back up online within two weeks. Fisher Pump and Well Service of Santa Maria was awarded the $72,000 emergency repair contract.
The press release said Sevcik informed the board that the well should be back up in time for peak demand season, “when the district will pump up to four million gallons of groundwater daily to meet the demand of the District’s 12,000 plus customers.”
The district is currently at capacity for water it can pump out of the wells to service its customers. A water pipeline from Santa Maria could relieve pressure should a well break in the future and would bring a much-needed additional source of water to Nipomo, an area that’s been locked in a water war since it was handed a final judgment for water rights in the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin in the mid-’90s.
The recently approved $17.5-million phase one of a three-phase pipeline project could bring Nipomo 650 to 900 acre-feet of water per year from Santa Maria.
A lawsuit filed by the Mesa Community Alliance against the district’s proposed financing plan for the first phase of the pipeline has delayed the project from moving forward for the time being. A court hearing on the lawsuit is set for the end of May.
The next regular board meeting is scheduled for June 12 at 9 a.m. in the district board room at 148 South Wilson in Nipomo. For more information, contact the district at 929-1133 or visit ncsd.ca.gov.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 6, 2013.
