Santa Cruz residents urged to ration water after pipe breaks

Despite a barrage of powerful storms throughout Northern California that brought 6.5 inches of rain and flood warnings to Santa Cruz in the last 10 days, the city ended up with a water shortage. When a major reservoir pipeline split during a deluge in the Santa Cruz Mountains Monday morning, city officials ironically found themselves urging residents to conserve water this week all while the U.S. Drought Monitor declared the drought over in the coastal city and most of Northern California. The city of Santa Cruz declared a local emergency Wednesday as officials rushed to repair the pipeline deep in the heart of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, along with city infrastructure damaged by the inclement weather. The city has tapped into storage tanks to fill the gap, with about 15 million gallons of water remaining in storage, according to deputy city manager Scott Collins. [...] one of the reservoir’s main pipelines, buried 10 to 12 feet underneath soil prone to slides and erosion in the Santa Cruz Mountains, split at a joint. After pipeline repair attempts were unsuccessful Tuesday, the city continued to urge water conservation in the form of shorter showers, postponing laundry, using paper plates, limiting toilet flushing and curtailing water use in other simple household tasks. Cross said she was “cautiously optimistic” of the second repair attempt, noting the paradox of a storm causing a water shortage.