April 4, 2025

On Saturday, March 29, 2025, PG&E was working on its transmission lines in the Frogtown area, causing a temporary shut down of both of Utica’s powerhouses. Unfortunately, when PG&E attempted to return to normal settings, they experienced equipment failure that required repairs. That part (and a qualified technician to work on it) are currently unavailable, so Utica’s Angels Powerhouse and Murphys Powerhouse have been unable to restart.

When it became clear that PG&E’s issues would force an extended outage for Utica’s powerhouses, we decided to begin our spring maintenance one week early. Utica is performing maintenance on powerhouses, canals, and wooden flumes through April 14, 2025.

In order to do this work, the water flow through the canal and flume system is reduced (and in some cases turned off completely), and no water will be available for irrigation use. Maintenance outages are essential for staff to maintain the integrity of Utica’s water supply system, ensuring safe and reliable operation throughout the year. While the water flow is off, minimum flows for human health, safety, and environmental preservation will be provided using water stored in our five reservoirs.

As long as PG&E can complete its repairs on schedule and Utica remains on track with its own maintenance and repair plans, we expect to return to normal water conveyance operations on Monday, April 14, 2025, in the afternoon. If this schedule changes, we will send an email update.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact our office at admin@uticawater.com or call (209) 736-9419.