The Calaveras County Water District (CCWD) was notified Tuesday April 28 that it had been awarded a $2.1 million grant to replace five, aging redwood water storage tanks with steel, ignition-resistant tanks along the upper Highway 4 Corridor. The grant was awarded to CCWD by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and it will cover 75% of the total $2.8 million project cost. The tanks that will be replaced are in Forest Meadows, Arnold and Dorrington. Expanded defensible space will be cleared around the new tanks to further protect them against wildfires. Planning and design for the project is expected to be complete by 2020, and construction is anticipated to begin in 2021.

“I am absolutely thrilled with this successful grant application,” said Bertha Underhill, CCWD Board president and Division 3 director. “So much hard work has been done by the CCWD staff to secure these valuable dollars at this critical time, and reduce the burden on ratepayers. Wildfire is always at the top of our minds in the upper Highway 4 communities, and this project will make sure our water supply tanks have a much better chance of surviving a forest fire.”

For more information, contact Joel Metzger, External Affairs Manager, at joelm@ccwd.org or (209) 754-3123. Learn more at www.ccwd.org.