Well No. 1 on Alta Street was abandoned many years ago due to water quality issues. It was in a shallow aquafer.

Well No. 2 was under the water tower and served to community well for many years. It was low producing and couldn't keep up with growth.

Well No. 3 at 201 C Street was recently abandoned due to low production and low efficiency.

Well No. 4 at 750 South Alta is a high producing well supported by a solar system on Constellation Brands' roof. This is a public-private partnership designed to keep water system costs as low as possible for our community.

Well No. 5 at 725 Fanoe Road supplements the other wells pumping water to the area and boosting water to the tanks. Note: this well is currently undergoing cleaning prior to return to service.

Well No. 6 at the corner of Katherine and Alpine in the Gonzales Agricultural Industrial Park has solar power to keep power costs under control.

Well No. 7 is under construction. It was designed to replace Well No. 3, using its plumbing and solar system. The location is at the Public Works Corporation Yard, 201 C Street. The well should come online in the spring of 2018.

There are three tanks at the location. Two three million (3,000,000) gallon tanks and a single one million (1,000,000) gallon tank. This provides seven million (7,000,000) gallons of storage capacity for our system. Gonzales uses about one million (1,000,000) gallons of water every day so we have 7 days of storage capacity without pumping.

People ask about the water tower. This tower could hold one hundred thousand (100,000) gallons of water. This is not enough for our system. The tower has not been used for water storage for over 20 years. The height of the tower determined the pressure in our system. Now the pressure is controlled by the elevation of our newer storage tanks on the hill.

Water quality is controlled by the Public Works Department. The system is water pumped out of the ground, chlorinated, then pumped throughout the system. Tests daily, weekly, and monthly check the amount of Chlorine in the system. These tests also check for other chemicals as required by the California State Water Board. The annual reports are sent to all system users and posted on this website.

Annual Water Quality Reports are listed below.

There are miles of pipes under our streets and alleys. They range in size from 1" (one inch) to 18" (eighteen inches).

There are many valves that control our water system. Most of the water system is run in parallel which means your water comes from more than one place and through many pipes. This means smaller pipes can act like larger ones when needed. This means we need to turn off several valves to stop one leak. If your water service is off for repairs, we try to do the work as quickly as possible. We also try to let people know when we are working on the pipes in their area.