After we reported yesterday on the safety barrier that disappeared around a patch of ground that turns to a quicksand-like phenomenon during rainfalls in La Playa, the Unified Port of San Diego responded quickly.
A crew went out, checked the area and shot photographs. Port spokesman John Gilmore said the land belongs to the city. He wrote in e-mail:
[O]ur general services personnel can only assume that there is a pipe underneath the sand. They can’t say for certain. The department does not have drawings for those pipes. The best I can say is the city should be able to tell you, since the pipes and easement are the city’s.
Gilmore said the port has repeatedly told the city about the decrepit condition of other storm water pipes in the Kellogg Beach area. One concrete pipe on the beach has a gaping hole in it, though it’s near the pipe’s outfall.
“We have tried to address it with the city, but the situation remains,” Gilmore said. “Those pipes are the city’s and it’s their responsibility to do repairs.”
I called Bill Harris, spokesman for the city’s storm water division, on Wednesday. He said his team was looking into the details and said he’d forward them as he got them. I haven’t heard from him Thursday.
Please contact Rob Davis directly at rob.davis@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0529 and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/robwdavis.