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The loss comes as
the state is in its fourth year of a devastating drought that
has prompted Governor Jerry Brown to impose the state's
first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use, up to 36
percent in some communities.
Alameda County Water District officials told the newspaper that
the agency reported the incident, which caused the water to run
into the San Francisco Bay, to police around 11:30 a.m. on
Thursday.
"This is a very significant loss of water under any
circumstances, and more so in the drought conditions we are
experiencing," water district general manager Robert Shaver told
the newspaper. "It is an utterly senseless, destructive and
wasteful thing to do."
The 49 million gallons were to be used by residents and
businesses in the city of Fremont, some 33 miles (53 km)
southeast of San Francisco, and surrounding communities,
officials told the paper.
Water officials said that while the amount of water could have
supplied 500 homes for a year, the loss would not likely have a
"long-term impact on its water supply operations," according to
the paper.
Police told the paper that no one had been arrested for the act
of felony vandalism.
Regulators in an attempt to combat the continuing drought
conditions approved a plan on Friday by some of the state's most
senior water rights holders -- growers in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta -- to voluntarily cut water use by 25
percent in exchange for assurances that they would not face
further curtailments during the growing season.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Mark Potter)
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