Water Shortage Declared Serious
June 22, 1947
Rapid drop in the level of the mill pond at the Fruit Growers Supply Co plant here this week was called serious by Resident Manager C. H. Vincent.
The pond level has lowered about a foot in a week because of failure of the Susan river as a water source Mr. Vincent commented that the dry year has made the water so low as to fail to supply the pond for the first time in his memory.
In hopes of relieving the situation a new large well is being completed at the lower end of the Fruit Growers Supply Company lumber yard. But the bottleneck for its use has been a delay of five weeks so far in delivery of a new pump from Pomona for the well.
This new well is expected to substitute for another large, deep well which was made useless last February when its pump struck deep in its casing. Drillers from Klamath Falls, Oregon, who have just completed the new well beside the old plugged one, Tuesday began trying to retrieve the pump stuck in the old well. However, on Wednesday, they had been unsuccessful.
The new well has been drilled beside the old one. A 500-foot well, it will produce 1,200 gallons a minute. The first 160 feet have been fitted with 16-inch pipe and the last 340 feet with 12-inch pipe. Cement was poured around the casing this week.
The water shortage is so critical that watering lawns and gardens in the F.G.S area has been prohibited except evenings and weekends. The pond at the Lassen Lumber and Box Co. has prior water rights over the F.G.S Co. pond.
