JULIAN, Calif. (KGTV) — A familiar problem has returned to Julian, where another water main break has left parts of the town without water for nearly two days.
The outage is affecting multiple businesses, including the Julian Market and Deli along Main St. Business owners say the recurring issue has happened multiple times over the past few years, and they are calling for a permanent solution.
"We’ve been watching the main water pipe break and because of that we haven’t been able to do business a lot of restaurants had to close," Angela Barrios said.
Barrios is the deli manager at Julian Market and Deli. She said dealing with these water main breaks has been a constant headache, and it's impacting the way they do business.
"It’s costing more money because I have to use the water that we’re selling to clean with," Barrios said.
This is not the first time the community has dealt with this issue.
"In the past 5 years, the water pipes have broken 7 times, so right now, here one of them broke a couple years ago, and they still haven’t fixed it," Barrios said.
We visited the Julian Market and Deli back in 2024 when the business was damaged by a water main break. Since then, Barrios said, there has only been a temporary fix.
"The pipes were made out of a plaster when they should be made out of metal, so because of that, they’ve been breaking and breaking and breaking," Barrios said.
Julian’s Community Service District previously told us the problem is aging infrastructure and water pipes that were installed incorrectly more than 50 years ago.
Community members say the repairs are taking a long time, which is especially difficult for a town that relies on tourism.
"We rely on people coming to our town to survive, so if people can’t come here to go to restaurants, we’re barely surviving ourselves, you know," Barrios said.
We reached out to Julian’s Community Service District regarding the cause of the latest break and when residents can expect water to be fully restored. We are waiting to hear back.
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