SANTA CRUZ — After nearly two months without access to clean drinking water, some Boulder Creek residents are getting relief: The Big Basin Water Company has lifted the do not drink-do not boil water order for parts of its system.
According to a notice posted Friday, Boulder Creek residents who live on the following street names can resume using their tap water:
- Highway 236.
- East Hilton Drive.
- West Hilton Drive.
- Mc Pherson Court.
- China Grade Road.
- Lake Drive.
- Foxglove Lane.
- Mc Granahan Court.
- Double Boogey Drive.
- Culligan court and below on East Hilton are also included in the order lift.
There are the following exceptions to the order:
- Residents living above 500 Bloom Grade are NOT included in the order lift.
- Two homes on Fern Rock are still under do not drink-do not boil order.
Around 500 households served by Big Basin Water were put under a do not drink-do not boil water notice on Aug. 21. When plastic water infrastructure looses pressure, heats up, or melts, water supplies can become contaminated. Big Basin suffered major damage in the CZU August Lightning Complex fire: it lost a water treatment plant, supply tank, and 6,000 feet of water pipelines. The company also lost all their office and records, which were paper, as previously reported by the Sentinel.
Roughly 300 customers are included in the order lift, according to Stefan Cajina, the North Coastal section chief with the state water board’s Division of Drinking Water.
Benzene has been detected in Big Basin’s drinking water twice at at levels that exceed the state water board’s maximum contaminant level of 1 part per billion. The levels are established to protect people’s health over a period of many years because chemicals such as benzene have been linked to cancer and other disorders.
In areas where the order has been lifted, Cajina said contamination has not been detected at levels that are harmful to health.
Where the notice remains, the water board needs to review more drinking water samples, and to gather further information on the system, particularly where extensive fire damage occurred.
“We want to make sure that the damaged service lines, damaged homes have been isolated and removed from the system and then have sampling done to confirm that contamination is not present,” Cajina said.
Big Basin Water Co. has been asked by the board to provide a plan to continually sample drinking water throughout the entire system.
Still, some Boulder Creek residents like Mary Holland, have been confused by the order lift notice posted by Big Basin Water Co. Holland said she and others have felt unsure if smaller streets that branch off of main roads included in the order-lift, are also in the clear.
“The only roads they’ve put on the notice are the bigger access roads, but not the roads where the bulk of the homes are,” Holland said. “They’re not giving us enough information.”
Cajina said Holland and others should call Big Basin Water and ask if their specific address is included in the order lift, or not.
“We couldn’t get that down to something that fit on a page, nor did the system have a way to map it,” Cajina said.
For a dwindling number of Boulder Creek residents that remain without clean tap water nearly two months later, it’s unclear what lies ahead.
“I think we all have a concern that were going to be forgotten by the county because it’s a diminishing number of customers without water,” Holland said.
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