
After seeing Pump Station N fail three times in a one-week span during heavy rains last month, resulting in local flooding, District 2 City Councilman Kevin Faulconer said enough is enough. Faulconer is calling for immediate action to increase capacity of the pump station before more wet weather comes to the area. “It is unacceptable to have three floods in a week,” Faulconer said. “If not fixed, it’s going to happen again.” Pump Station N is located at Santa Clara Point in Mission Beach and takes water from Pacific Beach and pumps it out into Mission Bay. When the pump station takes in more water than it can handle, the pipe feeding the station backs up and flooding occurs in Pacific Beach — shutting down areas of Mission Boulevard and Pacific Beach Drive for extended periods of time during the rains last month. “Instead of pumping in, it backs up and shoots out right to that intersection and it floods out,” Faulconer said. “If this fails, it rolls upstream almost immediately and in about four or five minutes flooding will happen.” Faulconer and city staff visited Pump Station N during the storms, when flooding filled the underground station nearly to its brim. He said this specific pump station is important because it is the “large domino” of the system, receiving runoff and water from other stations during storms. “This pump station has had a history of problems over the years. We need to change that,” Faulconer said. Without a cost or specific solution in mind, Faulconer is urging the city to immediately increase the pumping capacity of Pump Station N. He said he does not want to see flooding occur in the area for the rest of the rainy season. “That’s the biggest concern — what can the city do to increase this station’s pumping capacity for the remainder of the wet season,” Faulconer said. Faulconer is currently in talks with the city’s Storm Water Department and members of the mayor’s office in an effort to fix the pump station. He said that everyone he has spoken with about the pump station agrees it needs to be fixed. “I want staff to provide an immediate solution for this rainy season in terms of trying to increase the pumping capacity and also from a long-term perspective to determine what the city needs to do to redesign this so it works,” Faulconer said.