Wastewater District celebrates 50 years with new offices

CARLSBAD — Leucadia Wastewater District celebrated 50 years of service and dedicated its new facility at La Costa Avenue and El Camino Real. The district provides wastewater collection and recycled water service to communities within Encinitas, La Costa and Leucadia. The district also opened up the new facilities for public tours in the afternoon.
“We’re proud of all the accomplishments from our current employees and the two local residents who laid the foundation for us more than 50 years ago,” said Director Judy Hanson.
In the afternoon, the district offered tours to the general public.
“Since we’re located in a shopping center, we wanted our neighbors to join us, so we could tell them that we appreciated their patience with our construction during the last 18 months,” said LWD Board President David Kulchin.
Leucadia Wastewater District is categorized as one of a limited number of public agencies in the state that operates independently of local government. The original five board members met at a small home on Neptune Street in the early years. Today, there are still five board members that provide oversight for the district.
The original facilities were constructed in the early 1960s when the district began with a 400-acre service area. Today, LWD encompasses a 9,500-acre (16-square mile) area. In addition to safely maintaining the 190 miles of gravity pipelines and 11 pump stations that transport wastewater to the Encina Water Pollution Control Facilities, the district operates a recycled water treatment plant that provides recycled water to the city of Carlsbad for landscaping use.
“We achieved funding for the approximately $9 million construction project through proactively establishing a Capital Improvement Project account years ago when we were planning for our future needs,” Kulchin said.
The San Diego County Board of Education’s Splash Mobile Lab, the Encina Wastewater Authority, Batiquitos Lagoon Foundation and LWD’s Teacher Grant Program recipient provided environmental learning opportunities at the event.