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Drinking Water |
 Wells - Groundwater is pumped from five
District-owned and operated wells and is delivered into Camrosa's distribution
system. The wells range in depth from 250 to 800 feet.
One of the District’s wells, located in the Mission Oaks area,
is also a groundwater injection facility. During wet periods, when
additional imported water is available, the District injects water into the Fox
Canyon Aquifer for subsequent recovery during dry periods.
By storing water in this manner, the District can improve the
reliability of its water supply and minimize costs to the consumer.
 Blending Facilities - Water produced by the
District's wells is blended with imported surface water to ensure a uniform,
high quality product.
Imported
water originates in northern
California
and is
transported via the California Aqueduct to its ultimate destination in
Southern California
. Because of the distance it is
transported, imported water is much more expensive than local supplies.
By blending
imported water with local supplies, quality is optimized while costs are
minimized.
 Reservoirs - The
District operates 11 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 16.25 Million
gallons - or about 50 acre-feet. Reservoirs are located high on the
hillsides along both sides of
Santa Rosa
Valley - The
elevation differences within the service area requires the use of 4 separate
pressure zones and 5 pumping stations to provide uniform service throughout the
District.
The
District pumps water into the reservoirs at night and then uses that water
during the day when water use peaks throughout the District. Because the
system is largely "gravity-feed" it can provide continued service, albeit at
lower pressures, even during short-term power outages and disruptions in supply.
Pipelines and Meters - Camrosa's
distribution system consists of more than 130 miles of buried pipeline with
diameters ranging up to 24 inches. The main east-west pipeline corridor is
along
Santa Rosa Road
.
Separate
pipelines carry potable water, non-potable surface water for irrigation purposes
and recycled water from the District's Water Reclamation Facility.
All water
delivered in the District is metered. Most meters in the District are
"touch-read" meters that allow meter readers to quickly obtain an accurate,
electronic reading by touching a wand to the top of the meter box.
 SCADA Control System - Camrosa designed, installed and
maintains a unique Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The backbone of the SCADA system is the programmable logic controller (PLC).
PLC's are
utilized at over 30 remote sites to gather data and provide local control of
pumps, motors, valves, meter stations and reservoirs. A graphical display
software, Man-Machine-Interface (MMI), resides on a computer at the main office
and provides a real time display of the entire distribution system. It not
only allows for monitoring, but the distribution system can be manipulated using
this MMI software. Flows anywhere in the system can be adjusted from
anywhere in the world.
Spread Spectrum radios are used as the communication link between the PLC’s and
the office MMI. Camrosa removed leased phone lines and converted to a
District owned radio system to eliminate the dependency on an outside source and
to ensure a more reliable communication system.
This SCADA
system improves water distribution and workforce efficiency and because Camrosa
Operators can access the system remotely, their response time is greatly
enhanced.
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