Robert Ruiz loves every square foot of his Clearlake neighborhood. But at the moment, even he thinks something stinks on the block.<\/p>\n
“We just want to change the name from Robin Lane to Caca Lane at this point,” Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
Ruiz has gotten to know a lot more about what lives directly underneath this patch of grass after a broken pipe sent sewage flowing through his and other Robin Lane properties in January, a mess neighbors say they are still dealing with weeks later.<\/p>\n
For 26 days, Ruiz says he leaned on others for the basics, with no access to running water at his home, where his wife needs 24\/7 care.<\/p>\n
“So I tell my friend, ‘Hey, can I come buy and get some buckets of water?’ Four or five of them so I can flush my toilet bowl in the morning,” Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
Others who could leave the house, including neighbor Mike Holland, said the city set up portable showers and bathrooms on Robin Lane for the first 26 days without water.<\/p>\n
Now, he says most of the neighborhood gets water delivered to their doorstep.<\/p>\n
“They have water tanker trucks. So they go down the road and they fill everybody’s tanks up when they need water,” Holland said. “Fortunately, I don’t use a lot of water\u2026 I try to conserve.”<\/p>\n
Neighbors are worried that at some point, that system will get too costly to keep up. The timetable for returning to normal isn’t clear either.<\/p>\n
City officials said the aquifer is a natural groundwater formation, not a manmade system that can simply be “fixed.”<\/p>\n
Officials are monitoring water quality in wells, as well as nearby creeks and drainage areas, to track any contamination.<\/p>\n
So far, they said test results show contamination levels similar to background levels, meaning residents should treat their drinking water before using it.<\/p>\n
The city estimates about 165 wells are impacted, serving roughly 475 people in the area. Their current focus is installing pre-filtration and UV sanitization systems at homes within the impact zone.<\/p>\n
Six wells were cleared earlier this week, and they expect more to be released over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
But neighbors waiting on the new system, like Ruiz, aren’t too confident they’ll get it soon.<\/p>\n
“You have to get on a list, to get on a list, to get on a list,” Ruiz said. “It’s like, you know the whole neighborhood is impacted. Why don’t you just start at the first house and go down.”<\/p>\n
Until more wells are cleared, Robin Lane and other nearby neighborhoods say they are left waiting for clean water and long-term answers.<\/p>\n
The City Manager’s office in Clearlake confirmed to CBS News Bay Area that since an incident management team was created to handle the crisis, about $1.2 million has already been spent on the response.<\/p>\n