Incline pipeline project flush with cash

After a 21Ú2-year wait, the Incline Village General Improvement District will complete a project to renovate a 21-mile stretch of pipeline that ships effluent out of the Tahoe Basin.

Last Friday, the chief civilian staff from the Sacramento District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Marc Charlton and Linda Finley, presented IVGID with a project cooperation agreement for the design and construction of the Effluent Pipeline Rehabilitation Project, according to IVGID Director of Public Works Dan St. John.

The agreement calls for the Army Corps of Engineers to provide approximately $9 million that will go towards renovation of the 33-year-old, 21-mile deteriorating wastewater pipeline used to export treated effluent out of the basin. The project is estimated to cost $12.3 million.

"Transporting wastewater out of the Tahoe Basin was one of the first efforts to protect the lake," St. John said. "This agreement represents two-and-a-half-years' work with the Army Corps staff and made possible through the efforts of Sens. Reid and Ensign, along with Congressman Gibbons."

In response to a 1970 regional effort to protect Lake Tahoe's water quality, all wastewater was required to be shipped out of the basin.

The pipeline not only services the local area, but will also include Sand Harbor State Park.

"The treated water is then sent over Spooner, along Highway 50, down into the Carson Valley, ending in the wetlands," St. John said.

The agreement was made official as IVGID Board Chairman Gene Brockman signed the agreement at Aspen Grove.

Details of the agreement and a discussion of the start date for the project will be presented at Wednesday's meeting of the IVGID board of trustees.

For information on the project, contact IVGID Engineering Manager Joe Pomroy at 832-1269.