It is proving too costly to build a road to a planned water tower in the eastern-most hills of Anaheim, so the city will instead improve the reliability of pumps for bringing water to 80 homes in that area.
City officials planned to spend about $10 million on the 1.6-million-gallon Windy Ridge water storage tank, which, besides serving those homes, would have acted as backed up in that area in case of an emergency. The tank would have worked on gravity if electricity went out.
But grading for a road up through the hills above Blue Sky Road would cost at least $300,000 more than originally expected, officials said, putting the total tab at $10.3 million or more.
So the city has canceled the construction contract for the water tank.
Instead, for about $1.2 million, an alternative backup power source will be installed for the water pumping station that will work on a different electric circuit and shouldn’t lose power at the same time as the main system, city spokesman Mike Lyster said.
And city officials are coming up with a plan for portable pumps to serve the homes in an emergency, he said.
The water tank idea isn’t being abandoned completely, Lyster said. It will remain on the books if more funding becomes available.