County Ignored Residential Complaints About Continuous Water Flow in Creek Bed for Over a Year

This is another story about the County leaving the residents up the creek without a paddle.

We had a water flow in our dry creek bed for over a year's time. Several neighbors had been calling in for the entire year requesting an investigation but the requests fell on deaf ears. I think you might find this story interesting because it was County-paid water . . . meaning we residents most likely paid the bill for their negligence.

My search began on 10.16.19. 

Several neighbors had reported the leak to various County agencies and no one would do anything about it. So a neighbor from Jonel Way, a neighbor from El Rancho Grande Road and I (San Miguel Road) went on a little investigation of our own.

We first went to a residence at the east end of Jonel Way. That neighbor had been complaining to the County for almost a year with no response.

I took a video where the water rushed through the conduit under his driveway and was surprised how quickly the water was moving. That is the video I sent when I spoke to the various agencies. [I am unable to load the video(s) at this time but will attempt again and place them where I have provided stills.]

You can see how fast the water is coming out of the conduit under the driveway.

We followed the water backwards on its course until we found the location where we could hear it rapidly running into the spillway southeast of Jonel Way. We could not access the area because of the dense vegetation growth and marshy land.

Here's where we found the water pouring down from the hill below the housing development

Now we had determined that something somewhere had broken and the water was rapidly flowing into our creek. Next was the chore of finding someone that would do something about it . . . like locate the original source and stop the flow.

First I spoke with Desiree at DEH, the Department of Environmental Health. I was told that they deal with leaking septic tanks and that I should call the Storm Water division.

I called Storm Water and spoke with Nicole. She recommended that I call County Sewer.

I called County Sewer and spoke with Gary. He came out and looked at the water running in my riverbed and said it was a BIG leak. He checked out a few more locations but informed me that it was not the sewer, that all the sewer pipes ran on the north side of San Miguel Road.

Next I called the Open Space Inspector in Chula Vista, Cicilio. We spoke several times about the leak until he decided that it was out of his jurisdiction.

He recommended that I talk to the housing development up on top, the San Miguel Ranch Master Association. Cicilio said he had found mud and evidence of a repaired pipe on the San Miguel Ranch property, at San Miguel Ranch Road and Mohave.

I called the San Miguel Ranch Master Association on 10.21.19 and left a message on their voice mail.

I spoke again to Nicole at Storm Water and told her my progress. She recommended that I try the Department of County Watershed.

I called the Department of County Watershed and spoke with Luke. I told him about who I had spoken to, what I had been told and about the videos I had taken. He asked to see them and I sent them off to him.

I told him about a continuous flow of water in what is my normally dry creek bed. I asked Luke if he had his work boots on that day . . . he did. I explained where we found the waterfall coming out of the bottom of the hill below the San Miguel Ranch housing development and he started to retrace our steps.

Luke wanted the names and phone numbers of everyone I had spoken with. I sent those to him.

In case you've lost count, I spoke with SEVEN different agencies.

I heard back from Josh at Walters Management. His company manages the San Miguel Ranch Master Association. I told him that I thought the water was coming out from the bottom of the landscaped hill. He asked me to email him the videos and I did.

Josh said he would send one of the landscape guys out to look for the leak. He reported back that there had been a broken pipe but that it had been repaired.

I told him the water was still running through my creek bed and it was a sizable amount.

On 10.25.19, I received water videos and maps marking the leak location from Luke. He had solved the water flow mystery!

Luke had the Otay Water District shut down the meter that feeds the canyon so that it could be fixed by the HOA.

It was out of Luke’s jurisdiction but he followed it through and got it done. Apparently, the water leak was not discovered because the water was paid for by the County and not the San Miguel Ranch HOA. The HOA would have noticed such a large loss of revenue . . . the County, not so much.

I would be interested in the explanation of why the County is paying for the landscaping water for the San Miguel Ranch HOA and not their HOA.

Final report: The flow was 100 GALLONS per MINUTE!

I did the math at 30¢ a gallon . . . 60 (minutes in an hour) X 24 (hours in a day) X 365 (days in a year) to get the amount of water that had flowed for one year. I came up with $52,560,000.00 of wasted water running down my creek bed and eroding it. Just so I'm clear on this, that's over $52.5 million dollars of wasted water.

I called all the people involved and let them know the problem had been solved.

They were dismayed at how much water had flowed and how much money was squandered. I guess that's where the saying "spend like water" comes from but this was a wasteful and expensive "spend" for the residents!

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