All week, residents have been asked to conserve and boil their water. The city had to turn water off again Tuesday night for several hours and city leaders can't promise it won't happen again.
The problem lies with the city's filtration system. City officials are looking into replacing the city's filters. Until they do, they say water may have to be turned off from time to time. Repair crews are expected in town on Friday, but they're not sure how long repairs will take.
There's a pot of boiling water in Jessica Solas's kitchen -- a way to make sure she and her family has clean drinking water "They say you only have to boil it for a minute, I boil it for 5 minutes to be sure because I have small children."
The family has water now, but Tuesday night, they say it went off around 9 and didn't come on again until the morning.
City officials say they know it's been tough, but they have no choice. The water filtration system is old and needs to be replaced. In some cases, it may have to be turned off.
"There's going to be occasional shut offs over the next few days as we try to conserve and replenish our reserves," said Darrel Fonseca, City Manager.
Fonseca says the city also has to conserve water. On Tuesday they sent these notices to residents. Telling them not to use turn on sprinkler systems to conserve water. "This is an emergency situation where we have to conserve our water usage and use it for necessity only, for personal use only. So washing your car, watering your lawn, that's going to have to wait."
It's an issue for Jessica Solas, who says her grass and garden are slowly dying. She has a pumpkin patch she takes pride in, and her grass was just put in last year. "We're trying to just not water but not have anything die. I'm sure the city isn't going to replace all my trees and my grass."
The repairs will cost about $200-thousand. If the water has to be turned off again, the city manager says they will try to do so at night when there's less demand for it. Also, they're asking residents to sign up to their alert system so they get notified, we'll have a link on our website on how to do that.
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Go to www.co.merced.ca.us to sign up for the Merced County Emergency Notification System.
