Rainbow Municipal Water District approves water and sewer agreement with Palomar College

The Rainbow Municipal Water District approved a water and sewer construction agreement for the Palomar College campus in Fallbrook.

A 5-0 Rainbow board vote, Dec. 5, approved the agreement which allowed construction to proceed.

“We’re finalizing our agreement for the pipeline construction,” Rainbow general manager Tom Kennedy said. “That was just one of the formalities of that.”

In 1987, the Hewlett-Packard Company and the Rainbow Municipal Water District executed a water and sewer services agreement which included a payment of $2,707,129 for construction of sewer service infrastructure in exchange for 950.57 equivalent dwelling units of sewer capacity. The sewer infrastructure included a 12-inch force main and a 24-inch line to Gird Road, and the planning also included an 18-inch transmission waterline on Old Highway 395 with connections to the development. Rainbow approved agreements with subsequent ownership interests in 2002 and 2012.

An updated agreement in 2015 revised the assignment of sewer equivalent dwelling units to reflect three different developments on the former Hewlett-Packard property. The Palomar Community College District was allocated 100 EDUs for its 81-acre property, while D.R. Horton was given 754 EDUs for the Horse Creek Ridge development and Passerelle has 96.57 EDUs for its Campus Park project. The revised document also incorporated a designed and improved lift station, while revising the alignment of the waterline from between Horse Creek Ranch Road and state Route 76 to between Horse Creek Ranch Road and Pankey Place, which reflects environmental and cultural restrictions.

The water and sewer mains will run through the campus property and connect with existing mains along Horse Ranch Creek Road. Once the new lift station at SR-76 is operational, the sewer main will connect to and convey flow from the Pala Mesa sewer under Interstate 15 to the recently completed sewer main underneath Horse Ranch Creek Road. That new sewer main will allow the existing 12-inch sewer line east of I-15 to be abandoned, which will eliminate a significant source of inflow and infiltration to the sewer system in the area, so the replacement of the older sewer line will decrease the peak weather flows for that system and allow for more efficient use of the district’s sewer infrastructure. The Palomar Community College District is responsible for the construction of the public water and sewer mains through the campus property.

The work will construct 680 feet of 12-inch sewer main, 40 feet of eight-inch main and five manholes, which will become part of the Rainbow system. Approximately 55 feet of 12-inch water main will be installed to serve the campus.

The tie-in to the existing Pala Mesa sewer is expected to occur in March after the Horse Creek Lift Station is completed.

The Palomar Community College District has submitted bonds and insurance certificates to guarantee that the infrastructure will meet Rainbow standards.