Thousands of gallons lost in busted hydrant

California Water Services Company said crews managed to turn off a gushing fire hydrant on John Street in Salinas Monday afternoon after a car hit it, but not before thousands of gallons of water were lost.

California Water said it took 20 minutes to find the shut off valve, wasting about 3,000 gallons of water a minute. In total, that’s about 60,000 gallons of water.

Authorities said no one was injured in the car accident around 3 p.m. No word on what caused the collision.

To put it into perspective, California Water said it pumps about 25 million gallons of water a day to customers during the summer.

While it’s not a good thing, California Water said it’s not too worried about the gallons of water wasted Monday in the break.