FIRE AT SANTEE’S ADVANCED WATER PURIFICATION PLANT EXTINGUISHED

By Mike Allen

Photos courtesy of Santee Fire Department

May 23, 2024 (Santee)-- A fire that sent large plumes of smoke across East County yesterday was caused when workers at the Advanced Water Purification (AWP) project in Santee were joining together two large pieces of plastic pipe.

Santee Fire Chief Justin Matsushita said while workers were fusing two large pipes that are 42 inches in diameter, the plastic material, called HDPE, caught fire and quickly overwhelmed the workers, prompting their 911 call.

Matsushita said in addition to the pipes being 15 feet buried underground, the incident involved concrete vaults that made access challenging. In addition to an array of fire engines spraying water, nearby heavy equipment was used to smother the fire, he said.

Engines and first responders to the fire came from Santee Fire Department, Barona Casino, and Heartland Fire.

The fire that started about 3 p.m. was fully extinguished at 5:30  p.m, said Melissa McChesney, spokeswoman for Padre Dam Municipal Water District, the lead agency for the $1 billion AWP, a system that converts sewage to drinkable water and has been under construction for two years.

“This is not ideal of course but we’re lucky no one was injured and the fire damage was localized to a segment of pipe,” McChesney said. “I don’t believe this will create a serious delay in construction.”

Started in June 2022, the AWP is a multiple agency project that will take some 15 million gallons of sewage now sent to Pt. Loma’s sewage treatment plant, putting it through multiple stages of purification before it’s delivered to East County. In addition to Padre Dam, other partners in the AWP are Helix Water District, the city of El Cajon, and San Diego County.

Construction of the AWP is estimated to be completed by late 2025 or early 2026. Then there will be several months of testing before the purified water is expected to be delivered by the end of 2026, McChesney said.

There was no estimate on the damages as of May 23 but some of the pipeline will need to be replaced, she said. The project site at the north end of Fanita Parkway next to Santee Lakes has an average of 250 workers daily.

Officially, the estimated cost of the AWP is $950 million, but that doesn’t include future elements including an energy recovery stage that has yet to be approved by the joint powers agency, McChesney said. That part is designed to generate some three megawatts of electric power from the biogas and waste sent to the site.

Padre Dam said in an earlier press statement that the AWP finances are in excellent shape. The project was recently rated AA by Fitch Rating. That is the same rating Fitch gave parts of the financing package last year, McChesney said.

“This is a high credit rating especially for a new entity and shows we have a strong capacity (to meet) our financial commitments.”