SEAL BEACH : Landmark Tower Being Refurbished

Rising 140 feet into the sky, the water tower off Seal Beach Boulevard is one of the city’s most prominent landmarks.

So when workers draped the entire structure in a white protective sheet about two months ago, many residents wondered what was going on.

“I saw it around Halloween, and I thought they had dressed it up like a ghost,” said Louise Jefferies, a 13-year Seal Beach resident. “It looked so odd.”

In fact, the sheet was needed as part of a repainting and reinforcement project expected to be completed in April, said Richard Williamson, spokesman for the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

The 50-year-old tower, which holds 103,300 gallons of water, is part of the base. It is visible from Seal Beach Boulevard just east of the Marina Hill.

Workers began removing old paint from the tower in November through a sandblasting process. Since environmental rules classify the bits of paint as hazardous waste, the sheet had to be installed to prevent any particles from becoming airborne.

The covering was pulled up the tower with ropes, Williamson said. “It was like a big skirt. They just took it from the bottom and wrenched it up,” he said.

With the painting of the superstructure complete, the white sheet now covers just a portion of the top tower.

During the project, workers also plan to complete some seismic work to reinforce the structure.