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Penngrove Water – It works!

How fortunate we are to turn on the tap and get water! We are customers of Penngrove Water Company, and grateful we don’t have to drill and maintain a well, pump, and a separate septic system. Our monthly bill reflects a service fee for delivery (set by the PUC) plus the cost of water. But where does it all come from?

Penngrove Water Company was purchased by James J. Downey in 1944 from Penngrove local, Tony “A.J.” Ronsheimer.

By 1962, the company connected to the newly installed Petaluma Aqueduct of Sonoma County Water Agency, which crosses through Penngrove on Main Street at the rail tracks. The company no longer needed its wells (located around Penngrove Market’s south patio).

In 1996 Downey’s son James B. Downey, purchased the company from the estate of his deceased father, along with the Kenwood Village Water system. It is an investor-owned public utility regulated by California Public Utilities Commission and the health side is handled by Division of Drinking Water, State Water Resources Control Board.

There are two separate service districts in Penngrove Water Company, with a total of 761 active connections. Downtown Penngrove and its immediate vicinity (Penngrove Town District) is served by water purchased through the Aqueduct .

The second district, Canon Manor, was acquired in the late 1950s when it served Canon Manor with groundwater, but only on the east side of Petaluma Hill Road.

“The western part of Canon Manor was kind of a third world infrastructure environment, “ recalled James B. “Dirt roads turned to mud in winter; emergency services wouldn’t enter the area. Private wells and septic were susceptible to a hard rain, when contents of tanks came up and flowed down street.”

There was pressure to annex western Canon Manor into Rohnert Park, but the residents didn’t want the required curbs and streetlights, nor the expense of hooking up to Rohnert Park’s water system.

In the early 2000s, then-Supervisor Mike Kerns helped residents on the west side of P-Hill to form Canon Manor assessment district, by vote of the majority of property owners. The company installed a “pristine, turn-key water system”, as an integral part of the Canon Manor West assessment district. Underground storm drains handle excess water, and residents have clean water service.

Today two state certified operators are in the field all the time, in separate trucks, maintaining and improving the system. All meters are battery-powered, read by radio as the truck passes.

After acquiring the company, James B. established a strategy of system improvements, which included replacing old and/or undersized facilities with new larger capacity facilities. New mains have been installed on Petaluma Hill Rd, Main St, Dutch Ln, Hatchery Rd, Old Redwood Hwy, Oak St, Bannon Ln, Adobe Rd, Ronsheimer Rd, the Phillips Subdivision, and in numerous other smaller locations. These facilities have improved service in general while reducing leaks and other operating problems.

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