PG&E power plant repaired at Nevada County lake as California wildfires delay South Yuba Pipe repairs

NEVADA COUNTY — After a series of setbacks, a power plant near Lake Spaulding is back online and water is flowing to agencies in Nevada and Placer County after emergency repairs were completed two days earlier.

People have been asked to volunteer to conserve water during two emergency repair projects. Paul Moreno, spokesman for Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), said crews have been working around the clock since they realized there was a problem.

“From the moment we discovered damage at the power plant, we made it a priority,” Moreno said.

PG&E reported that the quick completion of emergency repairs allowed partial restoration of service near Lake Spaulding.

Repairs to the South Yuba Pipe will take longer than expected. Earlier this month, PG&E announced that California’s active fire season was the reason behind another delay in construction. The end of August completion date for the pipe repairs is now mid-September. The pipe was initially damaged in February by a landslide.

“With the winter conditions and snow, we couldn’t even really assess the situation, let alone start cleaning up the debris until spring,” Moreno said. “As soon as we could, we mobilized and started repairing that South Yuba Pipe.”

Moreno said everything was going smoothly until the special heavy-lift helicopters they reserved to remove debris were pulled from service by the Forest Service for firefighting purposes.

“There are not many of these types of helicopters and there are not many pilots trained to fly these helicopters,” Moreno said.

For residents like Juan Thomas, who live in the affected areas, there are no drastic shortages of individual housing yet, he said.

“The people who suffer the most from this are the people downstream, the farmers who use the raw water for agriculture,” Thomas said.

The Nevada Irrigation District released a chart showing the dramatic drop in water levels in areas like Rollins Lake. Although water is flowing again thanks to the completed repairs at the Spaulding 1 power plant, area residents say they have never seen water levels this low.