EID Suffers Fire Damage to Canal Infrastructure by El Dorado Irrigation District Aug 31, 2021 Member Submitted News PLACERVILLE — With fire officials’ authorization, El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) personnel have began initial damage assessments to limited portions of its flume and canal system where safe access is possible. That assessment confirmed at least three flumes have suffered significant damage, and multiple others still remain at risk. A full damage assessment and restoration plan will be ongoing depending on fire officials’ determining that the fire threat in the area has been fully mitigated. These sections of EID’s canal and flume system are located 24 miles east of Placerville, perched on steep, hard-to-access terrain along the south side of Highway 50. EID’s 22-mile-long Project 184 system has a mixture of above ground flumes and in-ground concrete canals. Some flume sections, especially those rebuilt in recent years as part of the District’s ongoing capital improvement program, are made of concrete. Many older flumes, however, are made of wood. The flume sections that burned include the 400-foot-long Flume 4, the 179-foot-long Flume 5, and the 146-foot-long Flume 6. “The loss of these flume sections represent a heavy impact that we are moving immediately to address,” said EID General Manager Jim Abercrombie. “I want our customers and community to understand that we will not run out of water. EID’s water system is an integrated, interconnected system that allows us to make operational changes to continue to serve water from other sources, such as Sly Park Reservoir, even with the loss of the flumes.” Every fall season under normal operations, the flumes are shut down for about 3-months to perform important annual repairs. With the damage to these flumes, that shut down period comes a month early. “When the Caldor Fire broke out, district personnel immediately began optimizing emergency water storage levels in its Forebay Reservoir in Pollock Pines in the event the canal and flume system was damaged,” said EID Director of Operations Dan Corcoran. “In fact, because of the recently completed raising of the Forebay dam by 10 feet, the District has an enhanced bank of water to meet customer demands while we begin the hard work of rebuilding flumes to get the water flowing again. If needed, we will implement temporary measures to ensure our service remains uninterrupted.” The district is currently under a voluntary call for a 15% reduction in customer water use compared to 2020. With this reduction, EID estimates that water supply will be adequate to meet customer demands when evacuation orders near the fire are lifted and our customers can return home. Until then, the district continues to deliver key firefighting water supplies to help suppress the fire. “The fire is still dynamic and active,” said Abercrombie. “I want to express gratitude to the ongoing efforts of fire protection services, as well as EID teams who acted quickly to protect infrastructure as best they could. They have done all they can to protect the infrastructure, while always ensuring staff and public safety. That will always remain our top priority.”