La Jollans are concerned about truck traffic, noise, dirt and potential loss of native habitat and open space from work recently begun on three reservoirs connected with La Jolla Heights Natural Park near La Jolla Country Club.
The La Jolla Country Club Reservoir and Pump Station Project is part of an upgrade to the La Jolla water system allowing it to meet current City standards. It will remove an existing water storage reservoir and pump station at 7269 Encelia Drive. That will be replaced with more- modern facilities increasing reservoir storage capacity from 500,000 to 880,000 gallons. When completed, the new station will pump up to three million gallons of water per day. Since mid-July, truck traffic has gone up Torrey Pines Road to Exchange Place heading upward on Country Club Drive to Romero Drive, Brodiaea Way, and Encelia Drive, delivering pipeline to the project site.
“The city agreed to do an EIR on the project, which they had been resisting,” said Jack McGrory, a neighbor impacted by the project and a former San Diego city manager. “We are waiting for that to be prepared, and then we can see what alternatives there are to the project and discuss the mitigation for it.”
The draft EIR for the reservoir project is expected to be released for public review and a 45-day public comment period this winter.
Dan Allen, a member of La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc., which makes land-use recommendations to the City on coastal parks, sent a letter as president on behalf of the group in 2016 stating, “La Jolla Parks and Beaches strongly urges the Public Utilities Department and the Parks and Recreation Department to transfer of the site of the Exchange Place Reservoir, which is to be closed, to the Parks and Recreation Department for dedication as an Open Space Park.”
Allen noted the project will involve “significant excavation, meaning heavy truck traffic.” He added a temporary road is proposed through a side canyon to the excavation. “Cost of the project indicates the scale of the work — $ 9.7 million at last report,” Allen said. The proposed project would demolish and replace the existing 700,000 gallon La Jolla View Reservoir, an above-ground water storage tank in service since 1949 in La Jolla Natural Park. It would be replaced by a new 3.1 million gallon underground reservoir at a higher elevation within the park. The project would also restore the existing reservoir site back to its original topography and condition by: installing 2,700 feet of 30-inch pipeline to connect the new reservoir to the City’s water distribution system; 780 feet of 8-inch pipeline to serve existing customers; 160 feet of 18-inch overflow pipe; and 480 feet of new 8-inch water line to supply the reservoir.
The proposed project would also demolish and remove the existing 990,000 gallon La Jolla Exchange Place Reservoir and pump station near the corner of Country Club Drive and Pepita Way. This partially above-ground reservoir was built around 1909 and went out of service in 2002. The reservoir site would be backfilled and landscaped. Its pump station and pressure-reducing station will continue operating.