Local News in Brief : South County : MWD OKs $200,000 Study for Pipeline

The Metropolitan Water District has decided to spend $200,000 to study the feasibility of constructing a larger water pipeline than the $15-million project planned to run from Lake Forest to Rancho Santa Margarita.

An MWD spokesman said district directors hoped that a larger pipeline would be able to bring water to all of fast-developing south Orange County.

MWD directors approved the expenditure at a meeting this week in Los Angeles, spokesman Bob Gomperz said Wednesday.

The Santa Margarita Water District, which serves 14,000 customers in Mission Viejo, Coto de Caza and Rancho Santa Margarita, has planned to begin construction of the 12-mile pipeline in a year, Santa Margarita Water District general manager Bill Knitz said.

The $200,000 approved by the MWD directors will be used to pay engineering design costs to see if the diameter of the pipeline can be increased to also serve customers of other water districts in south Orange county, Knitz said.

When the redesign study is completed in August, Gomperz said, the MWD board will decide whether to underwrite the added cost of the pipeline. Cost estimates have not yet been determined, Knitz said.

The MWD supplies water through the State Water Project and Colorado River Aqueduct to Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.