A raging fire at the billion-dollar drinking water treatment project near Santee Lakes halted construction and forced workers to evacuate on Wednesday before firefighters got a handle on the flames a couple of hours later.
Melissa McChesney, a spokesperson for the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, provided NBC 7 with the latest information on the damage and impact to the East County Advanced Water Purification Program.
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She said 100 feet of pipeline was damaged. The 42-inch pipes measure 4 inches in diameter and are part of a 30-mile network of pipeline under construction.
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“The two pipelines that were being fused together, creating the fire, are part of the wastewater pipeline elements for the purification facility,” McChesney said.
The plant's expected completion is the end of 2026 and will ultimately convert wastewater to drinking water for 500,000 people.
“Fairly small area of the project that was impacted, and so we don't believe it will have significant impact on the timing of the project,” McChesney said.
At peak times, there are as many as 250 construction workers on site. All were evacuated Wednesday. Santee firefighters doused the flames in roughly 2-and-a-half hours.
“I think, inherently, on a construction site, there's always the possibility of accidents, which is why safety is so important and is the number one priority,” McChesney said.
Workers are able to continue building at various other locations. Each one is part of a long process of treating and pumping the East County's answer to drought.
McChesney told NBC 7 it is too early in the assessment process to estimate a dollar amount of damage.
