NOT A WECOME SIGHT—The backyard of Catherine and Rick Laveau’s home in the 2300 block of Rutland Place is covered with mud in the wake of a water tank failure. Several safeguards didn’t work, and it took more than two hours for a city employee to respond. City officials say an overflow of a city-owned water tank occurs very rarely, but a 5-million-gallon tank managed to beat the odds and flooded Thousand Oaks homes over the holidays.

On Dec. 22 a water tank built in 1979 that serves homes in Lang Ranch overflowed and caused the flooding of Catherine and Rick Laveau’s home and yard and the backyards of two of their neighbors on the 2300 block of Rutland Place.

For this to happen, several safeguards had to fail at the same time, said public works director Mark Watkins.

Pumps kept pumping water even though they’re set to turn off at a certain level. A high-waterlevel alarm is supposed to alert a water maintenance worker 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. An altitude valve is also supposed to automatically shut off the pump if the water rises too high. And, if all of that fails, the on-site storm drainage system is supposed to divert water to a storm drain—not let it flow downhill into homes, Watkins said.

All the safeguards, including the storm drain, which was clogged, failed. The 32-foot-tall, 165-foot-circumference tank spilled over, causing a mess.

At 10:45 p.m., when her family heard water flowing into their backyard, they thought it was a problem with their sprinkler system, Catherine Laveau said.

When they realized it was coming from somewhere else, they called 911 and told the operator, “We have a serious problem.”

Firefighters were at their home within minutes, but fire personnel had to call the city to get someone to come turn the water off. While waiting more than two hours for the city to respond, the Laveaus and residents of three adjacent houses were evacuated, and residents across the street were warned to prepare to leave their homes, Laveau said.

“How could it happen that they took over two hours to shut off the water?” Laveau asked.

“The water maintenance worker on call is supposed to respond within 30 minutes,” Watkins said.

At first the city worker thought there had been a water main break. Upon inspection, he realized it was a pump malfunction. He then drove to the pump station to turn it off, Watkins said.

Fire department Capt. Ron Oatman said the fire department on the scene contacted city officials at 11:28 p.m. The fire department was told by the city that someone would arrive on the scene in 20 minutes. The city shut down the tank manually at 1:20 a.m., Oatman said. The fire department left the scene at 2:01 a.m. after determining that the hill in the backyard was rock-based and there was no threat of a major mudslide.

“The fire department estimated there was between 1,000 to 10,000 gallons of water per minute coming down the hill,” Oatman said.

To make sure it doesn’t happen again, public works water tank specialists are inspecting all 16 city-owned tanks and the city is investigating the causes of the flooding, Watkins said.

The city is under mandatory water conservation measures as a result of an increase in the cost of water in Thousand Oaks due to water shortages.

Neighbors came to the Laveau house and helped them remove their children’s Christmas presents. In the end, the family abandoned their decorated home and spent Christmas with family members in Agoura, Christine Laveau said.

A landscaper who’d just redone the backyard—before it was covered by about a foot of mud—was at the home Dec. 23 restoring his work.

The Leveaus’ insurance company, State Farm, has them in a hotel until another temporary residence can be found for the family of four. It will take several months for their home to be repaired after the damages from water and mud.

“Our entire home was flooded. We lost our hardwood floors and all of our furniture,” Christine Laveau said.

The landscaper and the insurance company will submit their bills to the city, Watkins said.

Further complicating the problems, most of the city’s staff was off work two days after the tank flooded. And, as part of the city of Thousand Oaks’ efforts to address economic challenges, all city offices were furloughed last week from Dec. 28 through Jan. 1.

The tank that overflowed is one of the two largest city-owned tanks. The other 5-million-gallon tank is on Willow Lane near a fitness club above what used to be city hall, Watkins said.

The newest city-owned water tank, on Rolling Oaks Drive, is five years old and holds 300,000 gallons. With effective maintenance, water tanks last more than 50 years, Watkins said.