Bass Lake Water Company

The water system to serve the Pines and Falls tracts at Bass Lake began informally in the 1930’s as an unregulated subsidiary of The Pines, Inc. who had developed residential lots for lease and a commercial area known as The Pines Village on the north shore of the lake.

 

In 1945, the Pines development and the water operation was acquired by Williams Resorts, Inc.  On March 2, 1959, Bass Lake Water Company (BLWC) was incorporated as a separate company under their ownership.  In 1974, The Pines Resort acquired the company.  In 2007, the majority of the Pines Resort assets were sold except for some vacant land and the Bass Lake Water Company.  The Water Company continues today to be operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pines Resorts LLC and is under the jurisdiction of both the State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water (DDW) and the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). 

 

Bass Lake Water Company serves a year-round population of approximately 500 customers and a seasonal population of about 3,000 customers.  The system, operating under Domestic Water Supply Permit No. 86-029, is located generally along the north and northwest shores of Bass Lake in Madera County.  The water is served through approximately 1,002 service connections, of which 958 are residential and 44 are metered commercial.  Water is supplied by three ground water wells and one surface water treatment plant taking water from the North Fork of Willow Creek. Annually about 86% of the water used in the system comes from this source with the balance from the wells. Only 25% of the customers are full-time residents; of the remaining part-time customers, 32% are from the Central Valley, 21% are from Southern California, 10% are from the Bay Area, and 12% are from other parts of California.

 

Prior to 1984, water taken from Willow Creek was disinfected and passed through a 1,800 gallon single-chamber pressure filter prior to being introduced into the distribution system.  No chlorine contact reservoir was provided.  In 1984, BLWC constructed an in-line filtration plant with four chambers located alongside Willow Creek approximately 1/8 mile north of County Road 274.  Prior to 1994, the plant treated flows of 500 GPM.  In 1994, in order to comply with the Surface Water Treatment Rule (SWTR) filter loading requirement, the plant capacity was reduced to 325 GPM.  In 1997, as an additional result of the SWTR, a chlorine contact tank was added downstream of the filter unit.

 

Extensive improvements to the filter and distribution system were completed between 1979-1984.  There have been no dividends or financial distributions made to the parent company since 1974.  Between 1990-1996 the Pines Resort invested $540,102.00 into operational needs and system improvements.  From 1997-2012, an additional $1,633,163.00 in system improvements have been made.