Recognizing the District’s Essential Workers in the Time of COVID-19
Westlands Water District recognizes the dedication of its essential workers, as well as essential workers throughout the agricultural industry and the state. The District is proud to support workers who doggedly continue their duties without fail. The dedicated Westlands Operations and Maintenance team (O&M team), for example, with the support of all Westlands’ departments, ensures water continues to flow throughout the District.
Westlands’ field employees are responsible for operating and maintaining an extensive distribution system comprised of:
- approximately 1,100 miles of fully-enclosed, buried pipelines,
- over 3,000 water meters for both agricultural and M&I (municipal and industrial) uses,
- 94 pumping plants,
- 39 regulating tanks,
- 16 reservoirs,
- 86 traveling water screens and spray pumps,
- the Pleasant Valley Pumping Plant, and
- the Coalinga Canal.
Each day the five Operations and Maintenance departments: Field Engineering and Planning, Operations, Civil and Preventative, Mechanical, and Electrical Maintenance, work cohesively to care for the District’s infrastructure.
This vast array of infrastructure delivers water to prime agricultural land, the Mendota Wildlife area, Lemoore Naval Air Station, and the communities of Huron, Coalinga, Cantua Creek, El Porvenir and other unincorporated areas within the District.
The Field Engineering and Planning Department, along with the District’s Safety Officer, plan, schedule, and coordinate daily work for repairs, annual maintenance, and capital replacement projects on the District’s pumping plants, regulating tanks, and miles of pipeline.
The Operations Department services meters which are then tested for accuracy in the Districts’ state-of-the-art facility and calibrated at an outstanding +/- 1% margin of error. The Department also troubleshoots pumping plants and the distribution system, aids in pipeline repairs with dewatering and refilling pipelines, and assists other departments in maintaining priority valves.
The Civil and Preventive Maintenance Department works on pumping plants that receive water from the San Luis Canal and disperse it through the pipelines in the District. The Department also repairs or replaces pipelines, meters and valves. Many pipeline repairs are conducted from inside the pipeline, where District staff enter the pipe, which can range from 30 to 96 inches in diameter, to inspect and restore the area of concern.
The Mechanical Maintenance Department oversees repairing the various pumps that are part of the distribution system, operation and maintenance of the Pleasant Valley Pumping plant, and fabricating and repairing critical parts of the District’s infrastructure.
The Electrical Maintenance Department maintains the SCADA network and all electrical equipment at the Districts pumping plants, including Pleasant Valley Pumping Plant, and the Huron, Five Points and Tranquility field offices. This Department is also inserting grounding rods for the Advanced Metering Technology (AMI) project on ground wells, a project in which the District is converting mechanical meters to digital mag meters.
In every day routine and in emergency situations, the talented engineers, machinists, operators, water measurement specialists, pipefitters, electricians, and other members of the O&M team in these departments ensure the District’s critical infrastructure is able to provide timely, reliable and affordable water throughout the District.
Westlands is proud of its O&M team and of the dedicated staff throughout the District. These workers and so many other essential workers are showing up and working hard to continue delivering water so that our growers and ranchers can continue to keep America fed.