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CALIFORNIA / TULARE COUNTY

Okieville

Ran dryRestored July 2019
No photograph available
Population (2016)
300
Water cut
May 2015
Cause
groundwater
Where
36.20°N, 119.47°W

What happened, and when

Every dated water event the register holds for Okieville, newest first, each with the sources that document it.

  1. Restored

    Restored

    Home connections to the Okieville-Highland Acres Mutual Water Company's new 1,000-foot community well and piped system were completed in July 2019. Residents reported in 2021 that the single well's pump failed often, with no backup.

  2. Ran dryon the card

    Ran dry: what happened

    Okieville, officially the Highland Acres subdivision west of Tulare, had no public water system and relied on private household wells, which failed as groundwater fell in the 2012 to 2016 drought; by May 2015 only one street still had a working well, and by early 2016 more than 14 wells had gone dry, with households on county-funded tanks refilled by truck or sharing water by hose from neighbours. Residents formed a mutual water company in 2016 and the state funded an emergency community well and distribution system.