Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) is proud to announce the completion of the Cuesta Heights Tank. The new 600,000-gallon Cuesta Heights welded steel water storage tank and new treated water transfer pump station replace the District’s Gopher Tank, which failed during the construction of the Cuesta Heights tank and is currently offline. The new tank serves the Racetrack, Gibbs, and Saratoga communities of Sonora.
The TUD Board of Directors awarded the construction of the new water tank to Njirich & Sons, Inc. (Njirich) in May 2020. Njirich crews completed the grading, pump station, underground piping, and demolition of the Gopher Tank. Crosno Construction, a tank manufacturer from Arroyo Grande and a subcontractor of Njirich & Sons, Inc., started construction of the Cuesta Heights Tank in August 2020 and completed the tank in December 2020. The project was designed by District staff and is funded by a $1.7 million Community Development Block Grant for construction, engineering, inspection, geotechnical investigations, and electric service to the site. The completion of this project improves fire flow and provides emergency water storage during the District’s annual ditch outage.