ESCONDIDO -- The city must spend millions to expand its Hale Avenue sewer treatment plant to keep up with coming development, according to a city-commissioned engineering report.

The report recommends a set of "near-term" improvements to the plant and the pipeline that carries its treated waste to the Pacific Ocean near Encinitas. Construction should begin next year and could cost about $10 million, it says.

The report, by the San Diego engineering firm of Brown & Caldwell, was released at the end of December by city officials at the request of the North County Times.

The Hale Avenue plant now treats about 15 million gallons of waste per day from Escondido and Rancho Bernardo, and will reach its capacity by 2014, the report says.

It includes a list of expected developments, the largest of which is Palomar Pomerado Health's hospital planned for east of Interstate 15, that add up to the equivalent of about 4,600 homes.

The report also calls for long-term improvements to increase the capacity of the plant from 18 million gallons a day to 27.5 million gallons a day by 2041.

The lowest cost option for expanding the Hale Avenue plant comes to around $120 million, more than Escondido's annual budget. Replacing the pipeline, which Escondido shares with other cities, could cost more than $200 million, the report says.

City Manager Clay Phillips said Thursday that he initiated the studies after developer New Urban West asked in 2004 about the possibility of connecting its Harmony Grove Village project to the city's treatment plant.

New Urban West later decided to build its own sewer treatment plant.

Completion of the studies, already in progress, then became a part of a settlement of almost $1.8 million in water-quality fines with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The fines came from a breakdown of the plant in 2004 and wet weather-related overflows in 2005.

The report's recommended near-term improvements to the plant include the replacement of various pumps, valves and vents and the addition of chemical treatments and more blowers and diffusers.

Phillips said the city could handle the cost of the near-term improvements relatively smoothly, but the projected costs of the long-term improvement demand more scrutiny.

"That's something that the City Council will have to wrestle with," he said. "Before we accept that it's going to cost that much, we have to explore all the alternatives."

He said that current ratepayers should not have to pay for new construction, because new development is making it necessary.

He noted that the most expensive part of the report's recommendations is replacing the pipeline to the ocean.

"Running another line out to the ocean doesn't seem realistic," he said. As an alternative, he proposed exploring whether more wastewater could be recycled or perhaps discharged into Escondido Creek.

Water-quality officials currently don't allow treated waste to be fed into creeks or streams year-round in San Diego County, but it is allowed elsewhere in the state.

Some of the Hale Avenue plant's treated waste is already used in the cooling towers at the nearby Palomar Energy Center.

Contact staff writer Quinn Eastman at (760) 740-5412 or qeastman@nctimes.com.

More on water quality fines

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/29/news/inland/03_13_7812_28_06.txt