Gallons of potable water down the drain

Lakeside Park Water Company let its water run into a South Lake Tahoe street for about 36 hours.. Photo/LTN

Updated Aug. 3 9:45pm

A landscaping water line ruptured this weekend in South Lake Tahoe, spewing unknown gallons of water down the drain.

Lakeside Park Water Company was going to wait until Monday to fix the leak on Pine Boulevard, but city officials said it was imperative they fix it ASAP. The water had been obviously going into the gutter and buckling the sidewalk since early Aug. 2. The line was fixed about 36 hours later.

It meant customers near the state line being without water from 2-6:30pm Aug. 3 while the repairs were made. It is not known how many were without water, but a number of hotels were affected.

“Upon investigation it is a landscaping irrigation line. We will confirm ownership in the morning,” City Manager Nancy Kerry told Lake Tahoe News on Aug. 3.

Lakeside officials are confident it is a city-owned water line.

“It is a city line on city property; a fact that apparently escaped the city,” Jack McLaughlin, president of Lakeside Park Association, told Lake Tahoe News.

The city has vegetated drainage basins throughout town, so this could be what was being irrigated.

While McLaughlin didn’t have the number of gallons that were lost, he said, “It wasn’t a lot of water, it wasn’t a major break.”

— Kathryn Reed