$9 Million OKd for MWD Quake Repairs

The Metropolitan Water District board has allocated more than $9 million for its latest earthquake rebuilding effort.

The board Tuesday approved $8 million to repair a 3,000-foot section of a large tunnel along the district’s Foothill Feeder near the junction of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways.

The line, 21 feet in diameter, delivers water from Castaic Lake to the agency’s Joseph Jensen Filtration Plant in Granada Hills. The Jan. 17 Northridge earthquake caused two large bulges in the tunnel’s steel liner.

A previous bulge in the liner, which was installed in 1990 to keep oil deposits out of the water supply, was repaired in 1991.

Assistant Chief Engineer Gary J. Hazel said these latest repairs, which will be buttressed by an additional 12-inch-thick concrete liner, should remedy the quake-caused problems and also insulate the system against damage from future temblors.

The board earmarked another $1.15 million to replace a 60-foot section of reinforced concrete pipeline at the Jensen plant. That pipeline helps deliver treated water to about 3 million customers from Oxnard to San Pedro. Temporary repairs were made on the Jensen conduit shortly after the quake to keep the water flowing, Hazel said, but about 20,000 gallons a day continue to leak.

Structural changes will be made to the conduit, like the larger tunnel, to limit further damage from earthquakes.

The water district has already spent about $3.5 million on earthquake repairs and expects to allocate another $1 million before the job is complete.

While the money for the two new projects will come out of MWD’s general fund, the district plans to seek reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hazel said.

Work to replace the section of conduit at the Jensen plant is expected to begin in early 1995 and take about a month.

Repair work on the tunnel is scheduled to begin in February and take about 45 days.