Oxnard Told Sewer Trunk Is in Danger of Leaking : Growth: Public works director says new development is straining the northeast line’s capacity. He says city lacks funds to replace it.

The rush to develop in northeast Oxnard is straining the area’s sewer trunk beyond capacity, threatening to unleash thousands of gallons of raw sewage onto the city’s streets, according to a top city engineer.

The Oxnard City Council, which has approved several large projects along Rose Avenue and the Ventura Freeway in recent years--including Shopping at the Rose II last week--did not demand enough development fees to expand the sewer lines that carry waste water to a treatment plant in south Oxnard, said Ben Wong, Oxnard’s public works director.

In addition, many of the fees the city did require from builders were deferred for years.

As a result, Oxnard does not have the expected $8 million needed to replace the Rose Avenue sewer trunk with a larger line, Wong said.

Wong sent a memo three months ago to City Planner Matthew Winegar informing him that the sewer line, which was designed to be two-thirds full at the most, is currently three-fourths full in some sections, mainly near Oxnard College.

“It’s a signal that we should do something very soon,” Wong said. “Sewage may go into adjacent grounds.”

Despite Wong’s warning, Oxnard’s land-use advisory committee and the City Council approved Shopping at the Rose II, and the overburdened pipe will receive even more sewage when the first phase of the 223,000-square-foot shopping center opens later this year.

Winegar, who says he has not seen figures supporting Wong’s claims, nevertheless said he was concerned enough to forward the memo to the City Council.

Although members of the land-use advisory committee discussed the memo before voting on the shopping complex, two council members said they never received the information.

The 21-inch sewer line travels from Rice Avenue to Rose Avenue near Gonzales Avenue in north Oxnard. It then moves down Rose Avenue past Channel Islands Boulevard to Pleasant Valley Road, where it connects with the city’s industrial sewer line, which flows into the city’s sewage-disposal facility.

This is not the first time Oxnard has experienced problems with overloaded sewage lines, Wong said. In the mid-1970s, he said, the City Council had to impose a two-year growth moratorium after the city’s sewer lines were determined to be over capacity.

Northeast Oxnard has grown rapidly in the past five years, with retail centers such as Shopping at the Rose and the sprawling St. John’s Regional Medical Center popping up on Rose Avenue near the Ventura Freeway at breakneck pace.

Compounding the situation, sewage from the large network of industrial parks built along Rice Road during the late 1980s is fed into the Rose Avenue line.

According to Wong, some of the sewage from Shopping at the Rose II and other new developments may have to be stored in holding tanks until off-peak hours.

Although Winegar said he submitted Wong’s memo to the City Council, Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez said he never heard about the overburdened sewer pipe. If he had known the area’s sewer system was over capacity, Lopez said, he would not have approved Shopping at the Rose II.

“It kind of surprises me, because our General Plan states that we have adequate infrastructure to accommodate our development,” Lopez said. “We should know those things before we are discussing things. . .If that is the case, maybe we have allowed too much development in that area.”

He said the city may have to review its 2020 General Plan because it is having so many problems--such as traffic congestion--from growing so fast.

“If we’re going to pay for this, is it going to be the people who have been here 50 years, or the people who were here 10 years and caused all the growth?” Lopez said. “That’s what we’re going to have to consider.”

Councilman Bedford Pinkard also said he was never told about possible problems with the sewer pipe.

“When we discussed Shopping at the Rose II, nothing about that came up at all,” Pinkard said.