Damage to Crescenta Valley Water District facilities in the Pickens Canyon area has reached $120,000 after the most recent storm, according to district representatives in Tuesday’s board meeting.

The district also assessed damage to the Edmund 2 Reservoir as well as Ocean View Boulevard, which was the site of heavy mud flow earlier this month.

District engineer David Gould presented a slide show showing the aftermath of the rains in several reservoirs, and the planned solutions to repair those areas.

“The immediate short-term [goal] is to protect our district’s assets,” said general manager Dennis Erdman. “We’ve taken the steps necessary to put that protection into place. Some of it is already done, and some of it is still in progress.”

The companies PaveCo and Brkich Construction have already made repairs to the access road leading to Pickens Canyon at a cost of $35,000, but that was before this month’s rains, and Erdman said a possible $35,000 more may be needed to fix the Pickens area. Construction is planned for restoring the site and repairing the roads later this year. Gould stated the water quality is still good at the Pickens site.

The district has also spent $10,000 in damages to Ocean View. Homes that were red-tagged (deemed unsafe) had their water meters turned off, and fire hydrants have also been turned off in high hazard areas. The district said it is waiting for L.A. County officials to clear the debris basin before it can clean its facilities.

At the Edmund 2 site, Gould said 230 cubic yards of debris have been removed. The roads need repaving, and the inlet and outlets pipes continue to erode. A motion was passed to fix the pipes at a cost not to exceed $8,600. Construction is set to begin later this year as well.

At Shields Reservoir, L.A. County officials are estimated to take three to four weeks to clear the debris basin, which is full, and the plan is to eventually restore its pipelines. In all cases of repair, the district is working with Cal-EMA on cost recovery.

Erdman was authorized to start advertising for bids to replace the electrical motor control center at Eagle Canyon, which is estimated to cost over $170,000.

Gould said the district has measured 20.22 inches of rainfall to date this season, which is 23% more that the 16.44 Crescenta Valley averages annually at this time. The rain season runs from October to April.

Erdman called every new storm a “learning experience” in how to deal with damages. He said in this instance the long-term plan calls for “more extensive projects to create draining paths that are safe and that will keep our facilities from experiencing any further erosion.”

  cv water district, La Crescenta, pickens canyon