A breach on the main canal of the Anderson Cottonwood Irrigation District has left many of its irrigation customers temporarily without water, General Manager Dan Ruiz said Friday morning.
Ruiz said the leak happened in Cottonwood in the area of Gas Pont Road and Denice Way. He found out about it Thursday night, after the agency got a call from a landowner whose property is adjacent to the canal.
The breach forced A.C.I.D. officials to shut down the main canal and Ruiz did not immediately know how long the affected customers will be without water. “If I had to provide a range, the best-case scenario Monday or Tuesday, worst-case scenario next Friday,” he said.
Ruiz did not have the number of customers who are being impacted, but he estimated that about two-thirds of A.C.I.D.'s 800 customers are affected.
Ruis did not know what caused the leak. A.C.I.D. officials were at the site Friday morning assessing the damage and determining how to repair the damage.
“We are just getting into inspect it,” he said. “There is a big drainpipe (where the breach occurred) and we don’t know if that ruptured or if it’s a leak around the pipe creating a bigger hole.”
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A.C.I.D.’s main canal stretches south from Redding past Cottonwood. Ruiz said the breach is not affecting customers on the Churn Creek side of the system, which is on the other side of the Sacramento River.
“That’s a different area all together,” he said. Ruiz said the leak has been contained to the drainage ditch, so there has been no flooding.
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The breach comes after numerous property owners living near the A.C.I.D. canal had their property flooded last year by water leaking from the district’s canal.
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District officials told the Record Searchlight last December that they planned to spend millions repairing and lining the canals to prevent water from flooding nearby property again.
Where the water leaked the worst and damaged property, the district planned to line thousands of feet of canal with a plastic-type liner and then cover that with concrete, Justin Dahl, then the district's general manager, said in December.
A.C.I.D. is among nine Sacramento River settlement contractors that diverts water from the river under an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Most of the district's customers use water for flood irrigation on about 7,000 acres that is used mainly for cattle pasture and to grow hay.
David Benda covers business , development and anything else that comes up for the USA TODAY Network in Redding. He also writes the weekly "Buzz on the Street" column. He’s part of a team of dedicated reporters that investigate wrongdoing, cover breaking news and tell other stories about your community. Reach him on X, formerly Twitter @DavidBenda_RS or by phone at 530-338-8323. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Main A.C.I.D. canal breach leaves many Anderson-area customers with no water
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