DAVENPORT, Santa Cruz County — All across California, one storm after another dumped drought-busting rains last winter that put an end to water-saving emergency measures and the doomsday scenario of taps running dry.

Except here. On the coastal bluffs just north of Santa Cruz, this hamlet is in danger of drying up because those storms were more than a 100-year-old water pipe could handle.

The pipe was Davenport’s water lifeline — a 4-mile conduit that snakes from San Vicente Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains to the treatment plant for the town’s 430 residents. The storms caused landslides that damaged the pipe in two spots, forcing the town to tap into the smaller Mill Creek as an emergency stopgap.

But now it’s summer, the rains have stopped, and Mill Creek is going dry. By the end of July, it’s expected to be no more than a trickle. That means the old line must be fixed, or the county will have to pay $7,500 daily to truck water 9 miles up Highway 1 from Santa Cruz.

There’s just one problem — no one has agreed to pay the $220,000 needed to repair the pipe. Santa Cruz County says it’s the job of a Mexican construction giant that owns the line, which originally was built to deliver water to Davenport’s old cement plant and the townspeople who worked there. The company’s stance is that it has no responsibility to ensure that the pipe can carry water — that’s the county’s job.

Ultimately, the cost could fall on Davenport’s largely low-income residents, who already pay some of the steepest water and sewer bills in the state. Davenport households could see those bills jump $2,200 apiece this year to make sure they can still have water.

“Imagine if you got a notice that your water may be cut off at any minute,” said Ann Parker, 64, who used to work at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk amusement park, but now is retired. “Or there is some sort of water crisis. Imagine a notice that there’s a huge bill for it, and you have to pay the cost.

“You would be upset. Anyone would.”

The fight revolves around Cemex, the Mexican multinational company that acquired the Davenport cement plant as part of its 2005 purchase of the British concrete producer RMC. The cement factory was a longtime economic mainstay of the town, employing about 120 residents in its heyday.

Cemex shuttered the plant in 2010 and is trying to sell it and partial rights to the San Vicente Creek water for as much as $7 million. After the plant closed, Cemex paid for the water pipeline’s upkeep. But when mudslides severed it in February, company officials refused to fix it, saying the pipeline wasn’t on Cemex’s land.

Back to Gallery Without water lifeline, tiny town on Santa Cruz coast is... 6 1 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 2 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 3 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 4 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 5 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 6 of 6 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle











“What they are doing is wrong, and they need to step up,” said Ryan Coonerty, who represents Davenport on the county Board of Supervisors and wants the county to consider legal action against Cemex.

“Cemex, who is out trying to sell this property for millions and sell the water rights for even more, should do what is right and repair the infrastructure and not force a small, low-income community to bear the full cost,” Coonerty said. “It’s really abominable behavior.”

The added cost would be disastrous for the fixed-income retirees and low-wage laborers living in the cement plant’s shadow, Coonerty said.

Davenport, a town sliced by train tracks and streets with names like Marine View Avenue and Old Coast Road, is inextricably connected to the former cement factory. The bulk of its residents still live in old company housing ringing the plant, which supplied much of the concrete that went into rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fire.

When Cemex shut down the plant, it also ended its longtime subsidizing of water for the town. Without the company picking up part of the water cost, Davenport residents have to pay the full bill for pumping and cleaning the water.

Their bills have since skyrocketed and are among the highest in California, according to the American Water Works Association. Each household pays $3,942 annually, including $1,649 for water and $2,293 for sewer service — nearly double what residents used to pay.

Cemex says it’s not the bad guy. “The damage to the main water line that was caused by the major storms earlier this year did not occur on Cemex property,” the company said in a statement. “Cemex did discuss the issues caused by the storm damage with the county staff and sent a letter to Santa Cruz County leaders in May offering them access so the county could make the repairs. … The attempt to cast this as Cemex cutting off water supplies is disappointing.”

Jason Hoppin, a spokesman for Santa Cruz County, said Cemex’s response was “beyond disappointing” and “irresponsible and reckless, and has put the whole Davenport community at risk of running out of water.”

Despite the uncertainty over where Davenport will get its water, there’s no mandatory rationing. And some residents said they weren’t even aware they were about to run dry until Coonerty held a news conference last week at a pullout off Highway 1.

On a bright and breezy morning, Stephanie Raugust, a member of the family that owns the Whale City Bakery Bar and Grill, pulled a pecan pie out of the oven and set it on a counter to cool. The 66-year-old has lived in Davenport for 43 years. She has had to boil her own drinking water at times when there were water issues in the town. But residents weren’t informed about the drying Mill Creek this time, she said.

“We haven’t gone through anything like this before,” Raugust said. “It defies logic in some ways, having this happen after the drought ended. I feel like we have been kept in the dark. However, if you live in this area, you know from the wisdom of country bumpkins that storms create problems in water use. It’s not surprising.”

Down the street from the bakery, Louis des Cognets, 65, worked in the backyard of his home with his Australian shepherd, Tess. He said the cost of shouldering the pipeline repairs wouldn’t affect his household — but he worried it would for others.

“I’m in a fortunate situation, but so many others are on a fixed income,” des Cognets said. “We are already paying so much a year. It doesn’t sound like Cemex is the answer. I think it will end up being us paying for this, but I hope that’s not true.”

Lizzie Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ljohnson@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn