Unwanted water leak in Ocean Beach
Posted by George J Janczyn on April 6, 2010
I stopped in Ocean Beach to check the waves at 9:30am this morning while on the way to a tour at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant and came across what appeared to be a water main leak at the corner of Cable and Brighton. I called the Water Department and reported it, but when I called back a few hours later to find out what happened, they told me they assumed someone was already working on it because of a wastewater problem that was being repaired about a half-mile away, also on Cable. I don’t know what the outcome was, but here’s what it looked like when I was there.
The water was bubbling out of the asphalt, between the trash can and the car driving through the pool. I couldn’t see if there was a manhole cover there.
By the way…the waves were pretty good at the north jetty.
GrokSurf's San Diego 
George said
I received this comment via email, published by permission:
I just viewed your blog about the water problem in Ocean Beach and it brought to mind a water problem in San Carlos on July 4, 2004. I remember the date, due to having to cancel the Music Fest and Fireworks that day for lack of funding. As I drove to Albertson’s in the morning, I noticed water coming out of the end of the asphalt median on Jackson Drive, just before Lake Murray Blvd. I called Jay Wilson, who was working for Madaffer at the time. He called the Water Dept., who responded about 45 minutes later. However, they could not get the water shut off, until traveling west on Jackson Drive for about 1/3rd of a mile, opening water/manholes along the way, until they found a valve they could actually turn off to stop the water flow. That’s the same problem the Water Dept. appears to have with water valves through the present – the valves are not being “exercised” (turned off and on) due to a lack of funding for such a task. You might want to look into that issue, especially when it takes the Water Dept. hours at times to find the correct valve or one that actually can be turned off. Just a suggestion . . . John
George said
Following up on John’s comment above:
The American Water Works Association says:
“A valve exercise program should exist to ensure that valves are working by opening and closing them at least once per year…Valve exercising programs may be the most ignored program for water systems; very few systems actually exercise valves, because few local officials see the importance–until a major break occurs, none of the necessary valves work properly, and large sections of the system must be shut down to make repairs. (Ref. AWWA Standard C500)”
The San Diego Water Department told me they do “preventive maintenance” on the valves every five years.