The Desal Link project undergoing construction in Santa Barbara will connect desalinated water to the city’s entire service area when completed, improving system resiliency and water quality.
The project — funded by disaster settlement funds and available Water Fund reserves — involves the installation of a new, two-mile-long pipeline connecting the Charles E. Meyer Desalination Plant to the Cater Water Treatment Plant, which distributes most of the water in the city.
“The purpose of this new pipeline is to provide access to desalinated water for our entire service area,” the project’s website stated. “Up until now, only residents and businesses from the waterfront up to about Micheltorena Street have had access to desalinated water. The Desal Link project will connect desalinated water to our main distribution hub — the Cater Water Treatment Plant.”
Carson Wollert, supervising engineer for the project, said that about two-thirds of customers in Santa Barbara in that area have access to desalinated water, so the completion of the Desal Link project will provide access for the other 33% of residents.
“Once the pipeline’s connected, the desal water and the [Cater Water Treatment Plant] water will be mixed in the reservoirs up there,” Wollert said. “It will be a blend of Cachuma water and desal water.”
Construction for the project began last November near Garden and Mission streets, with crews working in trenches to install the pipeline below other utility lines.
Now, as construction proceeds toward the desalination plant, crews are working on Sola and Olive streets, and work is expected to continue at least through this fall.
According to a fact sheet for the project, crews are working in three-block sections for about six weeks per section. While local access to streets is still open, other traffic and parking are restricted as crews work through each section.
Construction will take place from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each weekday, although some construction may occur at night to reduce impacts to local businesses.
As the project moves forward, the pipeline will be installed underneath Garden, Sola, Olive, Ortega, Calle Cesar Chavez and Yanonali streets.
Wollert added that crews are now pressure-testing the portion of the pipeline along Garden Street, and once that is finished, it will be connected to the existing pipe.
Most of the work is being done by digging trenches to install the pipeline; however, Wollert said that, because of many utility lines under a section of the Sola and Laguna streets intersection, a trenchless, jack and bore method is being used, in which a tunnel is drilled underneath the utilities to install the pipeline.
Wollert said that with the current construction schedule, crews should be working at the desalination plant on Yanonali Street by November or December of this year.
“That’s the end of construction, and then there’s a fair amount of construction to connect to the desal plant,” Wollert said.
More information on the Desal Link project and the desalination plant can be found on the City of Santa Barbara’s website.
— Noozhawk staff writer Serena Guentz can be reached at sguentz@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.