South Mesa Reclaimed Water Project Update

Posted on: December 23rd, 2017

A meeting was held between Dick Stern, Board President, and Mike Thornton, the GM for the San Elijo Joint Powers Authority (SEJPA) on Thursday, December 21, 2017 at the Encinitas Ranch golf course club house to receive an update on the status of the reclaimed water project underway. As mentioned in previous newsletters, emails and posts, this project is intended to bring reclaimed water to all common areas of the south mesa in Encinitas Ranch. Until mid 2016 the south mesa (the homes accessible from Paseo de las Flores and Paseo de las Verdes) was the only area in the community not served with reclaimed water for the common areas. The project was broken into two phases.

The lack of reclaimed water drives up water costs and could leave the community without any water for irrigating common areas should a severe drought occur putting millions of dollars of landscaping at risk. In addition, lack of sufficient water has the potential to increase fire hazards.

Phase 1 of the project was completed in August of 2016 and brought reclaimed water to a portion of the south mesa that included all of the common areas off of Shasta Drive, Heritage Lane as well as the small parks between Cypress Hills Drive and Paloma Court.

The following are the key points from the meeting regarding plans for completion of Phase 2:

  • The detailed construction drawings were reviewed that were 90% complete. 100% complete plans should be available in early January. The plans call for the reclaimed water line to be placed underway the roads. The pipeline will come up under Paseo de las Flores to Lynwood Drive then right to the very southern end of the street.
  • SEJPA had just met with the City of Encinitas on December 20th and they believe that the city will be making only very minor comments for the detailed plans
  • SEJPA anticipates advertising for the construction of the project in January of 2018
  • They aim to approve and award a construction contract through the SEJPA board in early April
  • Construction would likely begin in July with approximately seven months to complete
  • The water pipeline work will take about three months of time with the remaining amount of time spent on installation of the booster pump station near to the restrooms off of Paseo de las Flores
  • Several key considerations for the community were discussed:
    1. Normal construction hours are 7 AM to 3:30 PM. The work hours could be modified slightly if necessary.
    2. The contractor will need about three months of time to complete their work in the streets. They will never entirely block off traffic on either street but traffic could be reduced to one lane.
    3. The community will ensure that there are numerous notices made regarding the project construction using flyers, emails and posts on our website
    4. The contractor will be given specs to restore the roadway as best they can to its original condition including stamped concrete in several areas
    5. The community will reseal all of the roads after the project is complete in keeping with our formal reserve study plan