EDITORIAL: Pipeline Repair Took Too Long

Pipe line repair took too long



Publication Date: 07/20/08

The St. Augustine City Commission has approved spending up to $1 million to replace a broken pipeline the city's known about for four years.

In good times, the 1,600-foot pipeline transported treated water from the city's wastewater treatment plant on Riberia Street into the Intracoastal Waterway. Since at least 2004, it has squandered treated water on a salt water marsh ecosystem. The marsh is not dead, it's just not the way it should be, brown in color rather than vibrant green.

The original cost to remedy the broken pipewas estimated by a private consultant at $2.5 million to $3.9 million. "We could have done it faster; it would have meant a lot more resources and we would have had to just open up the bank account," said John Regan, the city's chief operations officer, last week.

City Manager Bill Harriss concurred. He said he polled the City Commissioners individually at the time and each agreed that it was too costly and that a cheaper process should be found.

Friday, officials from the Department of Environmental Protection, toured the site in kayaks. "It's a pretty healthy ecosystem," Jim Maher, DEP Environmental Resource Permitting Program administrator, told The St. Augustine Record.

While that comment is encouraging, it's just one of many in a lengthy DEP review process. It does give city officials hope as they make their case for the pipeline replacement and ecosystem repair.

City officials and DEP will get together this week.

The gravity of any damage will be determined by DEP. The state agency also will review the city's proposed fix, running a new pipeline along an area away from the damaged marsh. In short, there are no fines nor any consent order to the city yet, said DEP spokeswoman Jodi Conway last week.

A chance comment by Harriss last year when some repairs were done to the pipeline indirectly affected the city's solution. "I looked at it and said, 'Why can't you just put a big garden hose across the water?" Harriss said Friday.

Regan passed the comment toa contractor's repon another city job. He told Regan the concept is used in the oil industry but had not been tried with treated wastewater. Now it is going to be, if DEP approves.

We're glad the pipe is getting replaced. But it was too long in coming, regardless of the cost savings.

We don't like the city facing a possible DEP fine.

The City Commission should have been more proactive and had Harriss bring the problem in 2005 to a public meeting for discussion.

With the public watching, the elected commission could have debated the issue openly, called for a wider range of repair/replacement optionsto review and perhaps found alower priceby putting the job out to bid. The fix could have been made sooner and less treated water would have gone into the salt water ecosystem.

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