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Afraid of fire, community seeks help replenishing pond
| Saturday, Sep 20 2008 12:00 PM
Last Updated: Monday, Sep 22 2008 9:35 AM
A small collection of Walker Basin homeowners are looking for help drilling an agricultural well to replenish their small mountain pond in case fire breaks out there.
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The pond was already dry before firefighting helicopters started dipping bucketfuls of water out in a desperate effort to stop the roaring Piute Fire this summer, said resident Jennifer Wood.
Now the pond is nearly gone.
“It’s three foot deep. You can walk across it without getting your shoulders wet,” she said.
To make matters worse, the floods that followed the fire clogged the diversion channel that owners of the nine properties around the pond use to bring water to their pond.
“We need to get a well up there so we don’t have to rely on mother nature any longer,” she said.
Kern County Fire Chief Dennis Thompson said the neighborhood “dip site” was critical to fighting the Piute fire.
“It shortened, dramatically, the turn-around” flight helicopters were forced to make between the flames and a water source, he said.
Wood, who works for The Californian’s subsidiary company Valley Direct, said she has no problem with the firefighters taking water from the pond.
She just wants to make sure the water is there the next time fire helicopters show up.
Her homeowners association is trying to raise donations to put in an agricultural well to fill the pond.
“We’re trying to get the whole community involved because it affects the whole community,” she said.
People who wish to donate to the effort can send the money to the Hidden Treasures Well Fund, P.O. Box Caliente, CA 93518.
Wood said only about 10 percent of her goal in reviving the pond is for her neighbors’ recreational enjoyment.
Most of her motivation, she said, comes from admiration built up watching firefighters struggle to battle the Piute Fire.
Thompson said the pond isn’t firefighter’s only watering point, but that more such “dip sites” are needed — not fewer.
The county is actively investigating how they can build other, similar sites, he said.
“It’s one of many. But there are not a lot of water sources,” Thompson said.