LA PALMA : Reservoir to Boost City’s Water Supply

Tap water will be cleaner and more plentiful next year when the city completes a planned 2-million-gallon water reservoir on the north side.

The reservoir will nearly double the city’s water-storage capacity and will provide enough daily and emergency water storage for the foreseeable future, Public Works Director Ismile Noorbaksh said. Construction of the 26-foot-high reservoir will cost $1.68 million. It will begin next month and should be finished in May, 1994.

The cylindrical steel tank will be built on three-fourths of an acre next to the city’s Walker Street well, at Walker north of Fresca Drive in the city’s business and industrial area.

The city decided to build the reservoir because a 1986 study found that La Palma might not have enough water in the future to fight a major fire, Noorbaksh said. Water capacity is sufficient today, but new business and residential development will increase the demand, he said.

Though that was the primary reason, a side benefit of the well is that the city’s residents will have water that is slightly clearer.

“The (ground) water tastes pretty good, but we do have iron and manganese in our water on occasion,” Noorbaksh said. “It gives us a reddish-brown color. By changing the method of operation, by allowing the water to settle in the reservoir, we will be able to reduce the iron and manganese.”

The Walker Street reservoir will be the city’s second. The city has a 2.5-million-gallon reservoir and ground-water pump at the south end of the city at the city yard.

The reservoir, 126 feet in diameter, will be built by Trusco Tank Inc. of San Luis Obispo.