Sewer Line Project’s 1st Phase Is Finished

The city has completed the first phase of repairs on a sewer line that ruptured in February 1998 and spewed 86 million gallons of raw sewage into the Arroyo Conejo.

The reconstruction represented the most difficult part of the repairs, as workers built a new sewer line while refurbishing an existing line that still carried 8 million gallons of waste water a day, said Don Nelson, the city’s director of public works.

“This was the lower canyon part that was the most complicated work, because the line was under pressure and not a gravity-flow line,” Nelson said. “We also had to divert the [Conejo] creek around the construction site to allow for the trench work and the pipe crossing and everything like that, since the existing line had to be kept in service. It’s not like everybody was going to stop flushing for us.”

Workers installed about 6,000 feet of pipeline in November and then used it to route sewage while workers refurbished the original pipe, Nelson said. Both pipes now are in full use.

Nelson said the project should put to rest concerns from residents about further sewer line spills. Three other waste-water leaks occurred last year before the repair of the sewer breaks.

The cost of the pipeline replacement has increased beyond what officials anticipated, he said. The original estimate for upgrading the pipes had been around $9 million. But after last year’s spill, costs climbed to about $24 million. The cost of the first phase, Nelson said, is not yet calculated, but is expected to be around $11 million.