Bluebird lift back in business

The long rehabilitation of the Bluebird sewage lift station is done.

Work that was expected to be completed months ago was hampered by mishaps, mistakes and miscalculations — some due to the lack of accurate information on the construction of the aging facility. Modernizing and rehabilitating the city’s cranky sewage system has been a top priority for almost a decade, with about $16 million spent in just the past six or seven years. The Bluebird lift station project was at the top of the priority list.

“I am ecstatic that it is done,” said David Shissler, director of the Water Quality department. “We started in March and thought we would be done by August. Then it was extended to September.

“That thinking was quickly dispelled when we found how much corrosion was in there. And it just kept getting extended.”

Signs alerting the public to the project gave a whole new meaning to the word “occasional” as warnings were posted announcing “occasional street closures” between March 6 and June 9, long past the date Glenneyre Street was closed to all traffic.

Glenneyre was reopened on the Fourth of July weekend to accommodate holiday traffic and then closed again. Two lanes, one in each direction were opened in August.

Neighbors were in a tizzy over the extensions — pumps running 24/7 can fray the nerves — and city officials were none too happy either.

Extensions drastically inflated the cost, originally estimated at somewhere between $800,000 and $1.3 million, Shissler said. Later estimates approached $1.8 million. The final tab is still being tallied, subject to negotiations over cost increases due to contractor mistakes that delayed the project, Shissler said.

Delays, mistakes

The schedule was turned upside down when the contractor hit a water line, delaying the project for almost a month.

Also, the contractor set the protective concrete covers for manholes four inches too high. They will have to be lowered. But that is a problem for another day.

Loath to further disrupt the neighborhood, the city has put off the repair until January. That means the K-rail that steers traffic into the south-bound lane on Glenneyre stays in place until the manholes are fixed and the street is repaved.

But the sidewalk has been opened and all equipment associated with the by-pass system that kept waste water flowing during the repairs is gone, including the baffle that was used to muffle the sound of the pumps, Shissler said.

“We were blessed that we had no problems with the by-pass,” Shissler said. “We gained a lot of confidence for further maintenance projects.”

The by-pass was used to pump the wastewater south to the SOCWA treatment plant while workers coped with the problems in the wet well, expected and unexpected. They found crumbling concrete, large steel columns used to build the original station in the early 1980s, old sewer lines of which the city had no record, and water lines where they weren’t expected to be.

“Excluding the wet well, the project came in under the contingency fund,” Shissler said.

Working on an old facility is always a challenge and the rehabilitation of the lift station at Calliope and Glenneyre streets was plagued with delays and unforeseen problems — even before the project got underway. The original plan was to start the project at the end of summer in 2008 and wind it up by the end of the year.

Delays began while the rehabilitation plan was still on the drawing board, although that may have been a godsend, Shissler said.

Damages to the facility sustained in the repairs to the nearby North Coast Interceptor after a spill in April 2008 provided a clearer picture of some of the challenges of the project — the first overhaul since the facility was built.

Massive sewage spill

Six months later, the lift station abruptly shut down in the wee hours of Oct. 29. Some 580,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the ocean before frantically working crews were able to stem the flow.

The overhaul was delayed for months while modifications were made to the original plan because of the increased scope of work.

And with all the money and time spent, there will still be times when the odor wafting from the lift station offends.

“There are areas that drain down the hills coming from small lift stations that are untreated for odor,” Shissler said.

Also a pump failure at the Laguna Lift Station by City Hall sent some odiferous wastewater to Bluebird.

“The timing was terrible but we expect to have everything buttoned up by next week,” Shissler said.

The city’s Water Quality Department has two divisions: Water Quality, which implements permits approved by the San Diego Water Quality Control Board, and Wastewater.

Wastewater is responsible for maintaining 95 miles of sewer lines, 28 lift stations, the four-mile North Coast Interceptor that transmits sewage to the regional treatment plant at Aliso Beach and 17 urban runoff diversion units.

Key functions include maintaining the sewer system, moving forward an aggressive capital improvement program to reduce sewer spills, securing grants and low-interest funding, coordinating with the South Orange County Wastewater Authority and complying with mandates from the Environmental Protection Agency and the regional board.