Weeks after a rain-swollen hillside collapsed and severed the main pipeline providing potable water to the city of Benicia, crews have completed the installation of an emergency bypass line, the city recently announced. But a permanent repair may not happen until next year.

The city declared an emergency on April 5, one week after a series of powerful storms resulted in damage to the pipeline when a hillside collapsed on March 29 in Fairfield. The slope failure occurred just outside the city’s limits, near Interstate 680 and Gold Hill Road.

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Katy St. Clair got her start in journalism by working in the classifieds department at the East Bay Express during the height of alt weeklies, then sweet talked her way into becoming staff writer, submissions editor, and music editor. She has been a columnist in the East Bay Express, SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Examiner. Starting in 2015, she begrudgingly scaled the inverted pyramid at dailies such as the Vallejo Times-Herald, The Vacaville Reporter, and the Daily Republic. She has her own independent news site and blog that covers the delightfully dysfunctional town of Vallejo, California, where she also collaborates with the investigative team at Open Vallejo. A passionate advocate for people with developmental disabilities, she serves on both the Board of the Arc of Solano and the Arc of California. She lives in Vallejo.