Project
Description
The San Vicente Pumping Facilities are part of the Emergency Storage Project, a system of reservoirs, interconnected pipelines and pumping stations designed to make water available to the San Diego region in the event of an interruption in imported water deliveries.
The pumping facilities include a pump station, surge control facility, and connecting pipelines. If the county is ever cut off from imported water supplies, these facilities will work together to keep water flowing. They will move up to 300 million gallons of water per day from San Vicente Reservoir through the 11-mile-long San Vicente Pipeline to the Water Authority’s water delivery system. This amount of water can serve nearly half of the San Diego region’s average, daily water use.
The pump station will pump water up to the surge control facility at the top of a hill overlooking San Vicente Reservoir. The 3-million-gallon surge tank was built in a basin so that only the top 20 feet are visible. The surge control facility will protect the San Vicente Pipeline and other pipelines from extreme pressure fluctuations that could result from sudden pump or valve failures in the system.
From the surge control facility, water will flow by gravity through the San Vicente Pipeline westward to the Water Authority’s Second Aqueduct.
With construction largely complete, the team is conducting extensive testing on each piece of equipment in the pump station and surge control to ensure it will work properly when needed. This work will continue into 2010.
To get a better understanding of how the pumping facilities function together with the San Vicente Pipeline to provide water during emergencies, please see the diagram below.
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