Unrelated maintenance, equipment issues behind temporary loss of 4 Camas municipal wells
CAMAS - The temporary loss of four municipal wells that prompted an urgent water conservation request in Camas earlier this week was caused by several unrelated maintenance and equipment issues rather than a single systemwide failure, city officials said Tuesday.
The city brought two of the wells back online, however, and expects conditions to stabilize as reservoir levels continue to rise. As of Wednesday, the city was still asking residents "to continue reducing outdoor irrigation and other non-essential water use," according to a message on the Camas government website.
"Two wells had known issues that city staff had already been troubleshooting and working to resolve," said Bryan Rachal, the city's director of communications and public affairs. "More recently, two additional wells experienced separate operational or equipment-related issues that required them to be taken offline."
Rachal said the well outages were caused by a mix of separate maintenance needs, equipment malfunctions and operational issues, and that some wells required repairs or troubleshooting while others remained offline pending replacement parts or assistance from a utility provider. He emphasized that the outages were not connected to any water quality problems.
"The city recently returned two wells to service, which has significantly improved system conditions and allowed reservoir levels to begin recovering," Rachal said Tuesday afternoon. "While reservoir levels declined and warranted operational attention, they are now increasing and are expected to return to more typical operating levels within the next day. There was no immediate threat to water service or firefighting capabilities."
The city continues to work on the remaining wells but is uncertain of the timeline for returning them to service because crews are still diagnosing problems and determining what repairs may be needed, Rachal said.
"At this time, no additional measures are anticipated to be necessary," Rachal said. "Reservoir levels are rising, and system conditions are improving following the return of additional water supply capacity. Based on current conditions, the city does not anticipate the need for mandatory restrictions or service interruptions."
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This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 5:58 PM.