Water District Plans Further Training To Prepare for Any Major Emergency

served as a dry run for Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD), to know what to do in the event of a major emergency.

Residents were without power for roughly 10 hours in Ramona and less time in other parts of the county. The cause of the outage remains under investigation although early reports indicated it was due to a malfunction at an Arizona utilities company.

At the Sept. 27 RMWD board meeting, Assistant General Manager David Barnum summarized the district’s actions during the outage. After contacting the district’s representative at San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) shortly after the power went out at approximately 3:40 p.m., Barnum said the district’s Emergency Operations Center (OEC) was activated and the operations staff remained on the job, as well as several customer service staff and department managers.

The Ramona OEC was the first in the county to be activated, Barnum said. Staff was assigned critical tasks to ensure the district would not run out of water. An emergency backup generator was requested from SDG&E to provide power at the Poway Pump Station. The station brings Ramona's water up the hill to the district locations. Without power, the pumping was at a standstill. Staff determined the amount of water available in the district’s storage tanks and the district’s portable generators were taken to critical locations.

After receiving word from SDG&E that the power may be off for days or even weeks, Barnum ordered a “call-out” at about 9 p.m. to the district’s 9,500 customers, asking for voluntary limited water usage. When the power was restored during the night, Barnum ordered a second call-out for 6 a.m. to inform customers there was no longer a need to limit their use of water.

The financial impact to the district, caused by the power outage, is about $17,000, which includes staff overtime and the cost for the call-out program. Barnum said the district will be filing a claim with SDG&E.

The follow-up plans for the district include training multiple employees to take on critical tasks in an emergency, and to work with SDG&E to develop a more time-efficient method for obtaining a back-up generator.

Other plans include looking for an inexpensive way to boost cell phone usage at the operations center and to review long-term options for additional ways to supply power to the Poway Pump Station.

Board members praised Barnum for the professional way he and staff handled the emergency situation.

In other business before the board, the directors agreed with staff that it has become cost prohibitive to continue with plans for reopening the Bargar Treatment Plant. The plant closed operations in April 2007. It is now used as the district’s lab.

The meeting was the last one for after more than 38 years with the district. He expressed his gratitude to the board of directors for its support while he was in the management position.

The next water board meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 11 at Ramona Community Center, 424 Aqua Lane.