COSTA MESA : Engineering Firm Gives Reservoir a General OK

Mesa Consolidated Water District’s new reservoir has won a positive review from an independent engineering firm.

Members of a citizen watchdog group had expressed concern that the design of the reservoir would lead to drainage problems and tainted water. But a report presented to the district’s board of directors Dec. 21 by Corrao and Brady Group indicates there is little cause for concern.

The San Diego engineering group concluded the design for drainage and overflow is adequate and did not make any recommendations to improve those systems at the east side reservoir.

The firm also concluded a water quality test that indicated the presence of coliform bacteria was conducted with faulty sampling techniques.

The one area of concern in the report was the inlet-outlet system, which the report said could cause quality problems if the water in the reservoir were still for more than four days in the winter and two in the summer.

In general, water agency officials said they were pleased with the results.

“They consider it to be well designed,” Mary Urashima, spokeswoman for Mesa Consolidated, said of the engineers. “They agree with the recommendation to continue the weekly water quality testing as we continue with debugging of the operations of the reservoir, but they said this was normal.”