Sewage pipeline proposal through Talbert nature preserve put on indefinite hold
An Orange County Sanitation District proposal to install a large sewage pipeline through a Costa Mesa nature preserve is off the agency’s to-do list for the foreseeable future.
Though discussions on the project’s future are ongoing and no final decision has been made, sanitation officials said the Southwest Costa Mesa Trunk has been pulled from discussion because of escalating costs — now pegged at nearly $30 million for the district, up from $15 million — and the uncertain prospect of boring beneath the Santa Ana River.
Construction was tentatively scheduled to start in 2020.
The decision is being hailed by a group of environmentalists that lobbied against the project, arguing that the 4,800-foot pipeline through Talbert Regional Park in Westside Costa Mesa would be disruptive to wildlife and construction would effectively close half the park for years.
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County and local officials have said the pipeline — a proposal first floated in the 1980s — would ensure a more reliable system by moving untreated sewage on its own using gravity rather than pressure applied from pump stations, which can fail.
The plan was for the pipe to start near the western terminus of West 19th Street before traveling through the southern portion of Talbert Regional Park and then below the Santa Ana River. The pipe would eventually end at the county wastewater treatment facility in Huntington Beach, near the riverbed.
Sanitation district spokeswoman Jennifer Cabral said the Southwest Costa Mesa Trunk also is problematic because it was expected to divert 1 million gallons of wastewater per day, which would reduce the amount of much-needed recycled water produced through the county’s groundwater replenishment system.
Kevin Nelson, who heads an advocacy group called the Nature Commission, lobbied for years against the pipeline alongside former Costa Mesa Councilman Jay Humphrey, who is again running for a council seat this year.
Nelson, who grew up in Costa Mesa but now lives in San Clemente, said their efforts aimed to protect a “very rare and small wild area.”
Talbert Park, owned by the county but located inside Costa Mesa city limits, is about 180 acres and divided into two sections north and south of Victoria Street. The park has few modern improvements and no parking lot of its own, making it a relatively isolated preserve in an otherwise heavily urbanized area.
“Jay and I’s contention from the start was that there must be another way to accomplish the engineering goals while not damaging both the habitat in Talbert and, almost more importantly, the ability for people to experience places that are not touched by structures and other additions,” Nelson said in an email.
Along with the city of Newport Beach, the Costa Mesa Sanitary District was part of the effort. The district had pledged to contribute about $7 million. Those funds were earmarked to install a nearly half-mile pipeline under Canyon Drive and decommission several Westside pump stations, which would no longer be needed to move untreated sewage.
The Canyon Drive pipe would feed into the Talbert line.
Costa Mesa Sanitary District General Manager Scott Carroll said the Southwest Costa Mesa Trunk remains a “worthy project” because it would reduce the risk of sewage overflows and save ratepayers money on maintenance and energy costs.
The district is working to upgrade the stations it had originally planned to abandon.
An estimate for the stations’ upgrades could be ready next month, Carroll said, and while it will be in the millions, it shouldn’t be near the $7-million figure needed to decommission the stations.
Twitter: @BradleyZint
