Canal repairs prompt calls for TUD customers to conserve water
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is shutting down its 15.5-mile-long Main Tuolumne Canal, the chain of flumes and ditches that conveys 95% of Tuolumne Utilities District’s drinking water supply, this Sunday, April 28, to next Sunday, May 5, and TUD is urging all of its customers to limit water use for the temporary shutdown. … The Main Tuolumne Canal outage is strictly for routine biannual maintenance on the flumes and ditches each spring and fall. Beginnings of the Main Tuolumne Canal, which brings water from Lyons Reservoir to Phoenix Powerhouse, and other ditches further downstream that are owned by TUD, date back to the 1850s when Gold Rush miners needed water at their diggings in places like Sonora and Columbia.