For the last three days a water crisis in a small community outside Madera left its residents without potable water. FM89’s Ezra David Romero has more on how Madera County is bringing water to this parched community.
Thursday was the first day that the 2,300 residents in the community of Parkwood, just south of Madera, have had pure enough water to drink come out of their faucets. The reason? The well that supports the community failed.
Johannes Hoevertsz the county public works director helped distribute bottled water.
“There are a lot of residents that are frustrated, but once we had the failure a lot of the residents were actually appreciative of the efforts of the county,” Hoevertsz says.
To fix the problem the well pump was lowered 60 feet, but this isn’t the first time the well has given out, it also failed in May.
“We need to have a permanent plan and a redundant system, perhaps with a tank so this doesn’t happen again,” Hoevertsz says.
In the meantime the City of Madera has plans to connect their water lines to Parkwood for 10 months. But until a reliable second well is dug, Hoevertsz says the community isn’t safe from another water shortage.
