Coastside Water District Closes Landmark Capital Year, Honors Its Builders

The Coastside County Water District board moved through an ambitious agenda July 14, approving three infrastructure contracts, closing out the district's largest-ever capital project, and learning that capital spending blew past budget for the first time anyone can remember. The meeting opened with an unusually emotional tribute to two men — a 50-year engineer and a former board member — whose work built the very systems the district is now upgrading.

• Record $15.8M in capital spending revises the board's longstanding metric for CIP underspending

• $330K contract awarded to replace leaking Miramar water lines near eroding coastal bluffs

• District pivots to horizontal directional drilling to rescue vulnerable raw water pipeline from storm-damaged creek

• Carter Hill tank project closes out at 3.6 million gallons of storage with just 2.3% in field change orders

• $181K emergency generator secures storm-season pumping for wells supplying 20% of district water

• Nine candidates seek next general manager as application deadline arrives

• Annual water quality report finds no PFAS in treated water

The board received preliminary year-end financials for FY 2025-26 that told a story of an agency in full infrastructure mode. Capital improvement spending reached $15.784 million — $734,000 above budget — a result so unusual it earned its own epitaph.