Dean Fioresi is a web producer for CBS Los Angeles. He covers breaking news throughout Southern California. When he's not writing about local events, he enjoys focusing on sports and entertainment.
Thousands of San Fernando Valley residents were expected to remain without water through the weekend days after their service was first interrupted on Tuesday.
The outage is affecting more than 9,200 Department of Water and Power customers living in Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, leaving them entirely without water after crews found a water valve that would not open while doing emergency repair work at a pump station that connects to a 10-million-gallon water tank.
On Saturday, LADWP said that crews had to excavate nearly 25 feet underground to access the damaged valve for repairs.
"The water disruption stems from a deeply buried broken valve on a major 54-inch diameter water pipeline that supplies the Susana Tank serving the area, with approximately 104 miles of water system pipes serving 9,200 customers impacted by the incident," LADWP officials said in a statement shared Saturday morning. "The repair site is located near critical infrastructure -- including oil pipelines, a fiber optic line, and a gas line. The complexity of the operation has now necessitated additional excavation to widen the trench. Repairs are expected to continue through the weekend."
As the repair work continues, crews also urged customers to completely stop running their tap water if it does work, because it's hampering the speed of their efforts.
During a press conference on Saturday afternoon, LADWP officials said that high water consumption has delayed repairs by at least 48 hours, pushing their targeted restoration time to 3 a.m. on Monday morning, depending on people's actions at home. They said that running a working tap, even in the midst of the outage, will decrease the level in the tank that crews are working to re-pressurize.
Originally, repair crews were aiming at completing work by Friday night.
In the meantime, residents are asked to use bottled water for drinking and cooking and to keep all indoor and outdoor taps closed. People are asked to refrain from doing laundry and dishes and to turn off their sprinkler systems and swimming pool automatic fill systems.
"We need you to boil your water," LADWP Chief Engineer Janisse Quiñones said last week. "After we lost pressure, we could introduce contaminants into our distribution system. Even if you have water in this zone, we ask you to boil the water if you are going to use it to drink, cook, make ice, prepare food or brush your teeth."
While the outage continues, LADWP officials have offered a number of service sites for customers affected by the outage. They can be found at the following locations from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day:
They also opened two new centers over the weekend, which are open from 5 a.m to 10 p.m., they are located at:
The water outage occurred in the midst of one of the year's worst heat waves, which brought triple-digit temperatures to much of Los Angeles County. LADWP crews continued to pass out free cases of bottled water to residents through Saturday afternoon.
During Saturday's press conference, Mayor Karen Bass reassured residents that Los Angeles Fire Department crews were on standby for any emergency that may arise.
She urged anyone with questions to call 1-800-DIAL DWP (1-800-342-5397) for 24-hour assistance. Residents may also contact the State Water Resources Control Board District Office at (818) 551-2004.