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By
Adam Kaye
North County Times
February 14, 2008
DEL
MAR -- Plans to replace a sewer line beneath the San Dieguito
River appear to have the support of the city of Del Mar and
planners of a wetlands restoration project upstream.
"We just really wanted to compliment you on your
initiative to replace that sewer pipe," Kelly Sarber, a
spokeswoman for the San Dieguito Lagoon Wetlands Restoration
Project, told the Del Mar fair board Wednesday.
The
board, which aired the proposal at its regular meeting, has
set aside $1 million to complete the job. The board took no
action Wednesday on the item.
When averaged over a year, the sewage flow from the
fairgrounds totals 115,263 gallons per day, records show, and
all of it flows through an aging, steel pipe. The pipe could
fail, officials say, and also could interfere with dredging of
the river channel planned in the spring of 2009.
That's why officials from the nearby restoration project said
they supported replacing the old line with one that's
double-lined and positioned well below the floor of the river
channel.
The three-year, 440-acre wetlands restoration wraps around
three sides of the fairgrounds, from the river mouth to well
east of Interstate 5.
Southern California Edison is paying to restore the wetlands
to compensate for marine life killed by the San Onofre Nuclear
Generating Station's cooling system.
Officials from the city of Del Mar did not address the board
Wednesday.
Contacted after the meeting, Del Mar's public works director,
David Scherer, said the city generally supported the pipeline
replacement, but the fairgrounds has not yet submitted the
permit applications for the job.
The fairgrounds is compiling the permits it needs, which could
include one from the state Coastal Commission, Gary Reist,
chief of plant operations, said before the meeting.
The pipeline would stretch 670 feet from a pump station on the
fairgrounds to a sewer connection within the city's public
works facility on the south shore of the river.
About 270 feet of that span would run beneath the river
itself.
The line, Reist said, would be a double-walled pipe equipped
with sensors to detect any leaks.
It would be installed with a boring method. That means no
trenching would be necessary, Reist said.
The pipe would run at a depth of 15 feet beneath mean sea
level, which Reist said is below the depth that a 100-year
flood would erode the river channel.
A construction schedule has not been set, but Reist said the
pipeline replacement would take two months to finish once work
begins.
Before the meeting, a manager of the restoration project,
Samir Tanious, said that its planners had requested years ago
that the fairgrounds replace the old sewer line.
"We are very glad they took it to heart," Tanious
said. "It's for the benefit of the lagoon in general.
We've seen what happened at Buena Vista Lagoon when an old
sewer line just explodes and the disaster it creates."
Last March, a pressurized sewer line failed in the lagoon
between Carlsbad and Oceanside. Estimated at 7.3 million
gallons, the spill was one of the largest in county history
and was blamed for killing at least 1,700 fish.
-- Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com
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