Drought-stricken California loses 50m gallons of water as vandals target dam

An inflatable dam in drought-stricken California was damaged on Thursday, causing the loss of nearly 50,000,000 gallons (190m litres) of water.

Police said vandals caused “irreversible damage” to the inflatable dam in Fremont, a city in the San Francisco Bay Area. The vandalism caused water meant for local residents to instead flow into San Francisco bay.

The Alameda County water district said the lost water could have supplied 500 homes for an entire year.

“This is a very significant loss of water under any circumstances, and more so in the drought conditions we are experiencing,” said ACWD’s general manager, Robert Shaver. “It is an utterly senseless, destructive, and wasteful thing to do.”

Police said that the vandals entered a restricted area on Thursday and intentionally damaged the dam. By Saturday, no one had been arrested in connection with the incident.

The water agency said it would cost $3m to replace the dam, but said it did not expect that the damage would have a long-term impact on the water supply for Fremont, Newark and Union City.

Once officials were alerted to the damage, water workers were able to divert water from other sources to stop any further loss.

California’s state water board announced on Friday that it had accepted a deal from farmers to cut back their water use as the state endures its fourth year of drought. The deal came as the board warned it would employ mandatory cuts if the two parties could not reach an agreement.