Rainbow Water celebrated its recently completed Thoroughbred Lift Station with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, September 4, in Bonsall. The capital improvement project is Rainbow Water’s eighth lift station and will provide greater emergencyresiliency and operational flexibility, as well as capacity in the wastewater collection system. 

The new facility is located at Thoroughbred Lane and SR76, and has pipelines along SR76, Camino Del Rey, and Old River Road. The lift station will collect an average of 600,000 gallons of sewer flows per day and is equipped with 350,000 gallons of emergency storage to help with emergency response and major system maintenance. 

“As a public agency, it is our duty to provide water and wastewater service to the community, and failure is not an option for us,” said Jake Wiley, Rainbow Water General Manager. “We must plan and adapt to changes to keep our water and wastewater systems flowing efficiently without interrupted service. Projects like Thoroughbred Lift Station are vital to meet the needs of our growing community.”

Construction commenced in Spring 2022 and was completed in July 2024 through a shared cost partly funded through developer capacity fees that support the District’s infrastructure. The multi-year effort and construction process to bring a significant asset to the community, received $10.5M in Sewer Capacity fees from the Citro development. The project’s total cost, was $21,033,360, including design, construction, support services, legal, and staff costs. The large capital project was a cooperative effort with local state and federal offices, community partners, and project partners.

“We appreciate the support from Congressman Issa’s office and Jim Desmond’s office, as well as community partners Bonsall Unified School District, North County Fire, Bonsall Chamber, and local businesses who were impacted by the construction of the project,” said Wiley.   

The project replaced aged and undersized sewer lines alongside and across the San Luis Rey River, and expanded a critical wastewater lift station reaching the end of its useful life. The new sewer lift station and pipeline improvements will facilitate wastewater collection service that benefits all areas served by Rainbow along the SR76 corridor as well as future developments.