What city would consider building restrooms at South Beach (or any other capital project) with THIS potential disaster looming?
Agenda Item for Tuesday March 5 – please scroll to pp. 99-101 of the 03.05.13 City of Coronado Council Meeting Agenda.
AUTHORIZATION TO ADVERTISE THE REPAIRS TO THE GLORIETTA BAY PUMP STATION PROJECT FOR BID
Few residents realize that the Glorietta Bay Pump Station is located just south of the Community Center, beneath beautiful Glorietta Bay Park. Staff is overwhelmed with the challenge of how to repair this essential facility, which is rapidly failing due to its age, design and construction, prohibiting essential periodic inspection and maintenance.
“The Glorietta Bay Pump Station pressurizes pipes and forces sewage to flow in a direction that gravity would typically not allow. It accepts pressurized sewage flow being transported up the Silver Strand (via the Cays Force Main) as well as smaller volumes of sewage coming from the Naval Amphibious Base and the area around City Hall. (The Shores, Hotel Del, etc!) The Glorietta Bay Pump Station transmits these flows via the pressurized Glorietta Bay Force Main to the Transbay Pump Station and ultimately, to San Diego. Therefore, any failure or disruption in service at the Glorietta Bay Pump Station could impact sewer service to the entire Coronado Cays and other sewage generators along the Silver Strand such as the Naval Amphibious Base” (and Loews Resort, Strand Military Housing, Strand Elementary School, etc.)
The above may be an understatement.
“Currently, Public Services crews cannot remove pumps from within the wet well due to deteriorated guidance rails and lifting handles; one of the four pumps is non-operational but cannot be removed for repairs. The lack of a redundant pump puts the station at risk should something happen to one of the operational pumps. A failure could have serious consequences.”
The facility lacks a bypass system, making it impossible to keep sewage flowing while a crane is moved into place to remove the massive pumps for repair. Also, “The internal liner along the walls of the wet well is beginning to separate from the walls and the integrity of the walls themselves is unknown at this time. …costs may be prohibitively expensive… With the pump rails and discharge pipes needing repair, maintenance operations need to be performed soon”.
Boating activities increase in the summertime, and activity in Glorietta Bay Park significantly increases (the new $4 million Boat House is open for kayak and paddleboard rentals). In addition to the normal volume of sewage produced in Coronado, there are presently six basements for new homes under construction, each of which is pumping approximately 300,000 gallons of groundwater per day into the system. Any failure of the Glorietta Bay Pump Station will likely result in an uncontrollable backflow from the village into the station. This, combined with the inability to stop the flow of sewage from Navy facilities, resorts and homes in Coronado Cays south of the station increases the likelihood of a massive and disastrous sewage spill directly into historic Glorietta Bay.
Discussion of building multi-million dollar beach restrooms or other public facilities appears absurd at this time.
Jerry Toci
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