August 17, 2012 — Padre Dam Municipal Water District recently received three awards for its East Victoria Reservoir and Pump Station Project. The awards include: the Award of Excellence in Water Supply from the San Diego Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Honor Award from the San Diego and Imperial Counties’ chapter of the American Public Works Association and the Excellence Award for Special Use from the Structural Engineers Association of San Diego.
Padre Dam engineers completed the $3.8 million dollar East Victoria Reservoir and Pump Station project. The project included full replacement of both the existing reservoir and pump station. The new circular concrete reservoir and modernized pump station allow for increased water storage capacity, system reliability and improved water quality.
The East Victoria Project represents the pride Padre Dam has in our facilities, and the commitment we have made to our customers for water reliability and water quality. The completed project enables Padre Dam to continue to provide a safe and reliable water source to the community of Alpine. After experiencing the 2003 Cedar Fire, increased water capacity and reliability became a priority for this project.
The new reservoir has an increased capacity of 1 million gallons of water for increased fire flow. The circular shape of the new reservoir will also encourage better water circulation and improve water quality. The pump station includes a standby diesel generator to improve reliability during power outages – which are a common occurrence during large fire events.
The new pre-stressed concrete reservoir is expected to have a service life of over 100 years. Unlike the previous reservoir that required a liner to prevent leakage issues, the new reservoir will not need a PVC liner, which will streamline routine maintenance.
The East Victoria Reservoir and Pump Station project is one of five reservoirs in Padre Dam’s Five Reservoir Retrofit Capital Improvement Program. All five reservoirs were originally constructed in 1962. The original reservoirs were partially buried hopper bottom concrete reservoirs that require continual maintenance to stay in good operating condition and comply with California Department of Public Health regulations. While the majority of the reservoir sites are being retrofitted, the increased capacity needed for the East Victoria site made complete replacement the best option.
Padre Dam Municipal Water District provides water, wastewater, recycled water and recreation services to 100,000 residents in East San Diego County including Santee, El Cajon, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, Harbison Canyon, Blossom Valley, Alpine, Dehesa and Crest.
Melissa McChesney
mmcchesney@padre.org
T 619]258]4680
C 619]572]1490
RL – Thank you for your concern. The amount of energy needed to run an emergency diesel generator far exceeds anything solar could generate. Plus it is an ‘Emergency’ generator, and needs to run on immediate demand, like at night for example. So although solar may sound like a good idea it is not the right application for emergency generators.
Padre Dam Municipal Water District
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One concern, instead of diesel generators, why not have solar onsite? Can the roof of the Reservoir be fitted with these?
We should give awards for the do not drink tap water moratorium