Big Basin Water Company could enter receivership, hundreds under boil order - KSBW Monterey

Big Basin Water Company could enter receivership, hundreds under boil order

Hundreds of water customers in the Santa Cruz mountains are under an advisory to boil their water from a private utility that has a history of problems and is now headed to court where a judge could put the utility in receivership.

For many customers of the Big Basin Water Company their only source of fresh water is a temporary fill station set up in downtown Boulder Creek, courtesy of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District.

“It's everything from washing dishes to flushing toilets to taking showers, whatever we need to use water for,” said Chan Moore, a Big Basin Water customer.

Moore is one of more than 500 Big Basin Water Company customers who are being advised to bottle their water and avoid outdoor watering. The problem appears to be a water main break that, in some cases, is leaving customers in higher elevations with no water at all. Water is now being trucked into some of those areas.

“It's just a water system that should've been maintained throughout the years and kept up, and instead, it wasn't; it was just allowed to deteriorate,” said Moore.

It's no secret the Big Basin Water Company has been in bad shape for years. Then came the CZU Lightning Fire, which only made the problems worse as flames damaged or destroyed much of the infrastructure.

“Unfortunately, we continue to see some water issues for the neighbors up there. The ratepayers at Big Basin Water Company are getting frustrated with the operations,” said Jason Hoppin, spokesman for Santa Cruz County.

Frustrated customers are now looking to the courts for some relief. A hearing scheduled for Sept. 29 could put the water utility under a judge's jurisdiction.

“They have initiated a receivership process to assume control and have a judge oversee the operations of Big Basin water so that that will hopefully lead to some system improvements and that this kind of thing stops happening,” said Hoppin.

At one point, the San Lorenzo Valley water district had considered consolidating with the Big Basin Water Company but backed out after their studies estimated it could take between $20 million and $40 million to get the water system up to state standards. That was a bill SLVWD couldn’t pass on to their current customers with no guarantee of any financial assistance from the state.

Big Basin Water Company is a private company and is now being temporarily operated by a company out of Missouri called Central States Water Resources.

Some current customers, along with local, county and state leaders feel putting the utility into receivership is a good start in hopes of getting problems addressed and fixed.

“I hope the receivership goes through the way things are going right now; it's kind of piecemeal and nobody has any confidence in the messages coming out. There're mixed messages,” said Moore.

The company temporarily in charge of Big Basin Water Comapny had no timeline for when the water repairs might be completed, therefore the boil advisory will remain in effect indefinitely.