OC San needs access to aging pipeline running through Huntington Beach backyards

Huntington Beach homeowners who sued the Orange County Sanitation District to prevent the demolition of their backyard will be able to argue their case in court, an Orange County Superior Court judge recently ruled.

The decision by OC Superior Court Judge Deborah Servino to progress the homeowners’ lawsuit to trial came just weeks after OC San crews began maintenance work on an underground wastewater pipeline that runs through the yards of 29 homes on Rhone Lane. In order to access the aging sewer line, the utility company said it needs to remove pools, patios and other backyard structures built on a 30-foot easement, in addition to building an 8-foot cinder block wall and installing access gates on the affected properties.

While a group of the Rhone Lane homeowners filed a lawsuit, more than a dozen signed settlement agreements in December 2023 with the sanitation district for it to access the pipeline and do work on it.

Construction has occurred behind seven homes since March 1, sanitation district officials said. The Miller-Holder Rhone Lane Sewer Easement Cleanup project, currently in its second phase, is expected to wrap up before the end of the year.

In her recent ruling, Servino wrote that the sanitation district had failed to show that the backyard “structures, improvements, or other objects and organic matter” on the Rhone Lane properties are interfering” with OC San’s “full use and enjoyment of the easements.” The ruling also gave residents permission to file a complaint against the city of Huntington Beach for failing to sufficiently inform them about the easement when it issued building permits for their pools years, if not decades, earlier. A trial date was set for March 2027.

The sewer line was installed in 1959 when much of Huntington Beach was farmland. The 6-foot pipe, which transports 10 million gallons of wastewater a day, is nearing the end of its life and needs to be rehabilitated and eventually replaced, OC San officials said.

Frank Clarke bought his home on Rhone Lane in 1971, when much of the area was open fields, he said. Soon after, he spent $5,000 installing a pool that three generations of his family have swum in.

Clarke, 81, is among the more than a dozen homeowners who filed the class action lawsuit against the sanitation district to prevent construction work on their backyards. He said he doesn’t understand why the utility is in such a hurry to clean up the pipeline now, given that the structure has not malfunctioned in the past six decades.

“If it ain’t broke, leave it alone,” he said.

Jennifer Cabral, an administration manager with OC San, said the utility has continued construction within the easement in coordination with the 13 property owners who previously signed the settlement agreements. The agreement allows the sanitation district to remove backyard amenities, including pools and fences, built on top of the easement so that crews can more easily access the pipeline, she said. The utility is covering demolition costs.

“OC San remains focused on ensuring safe, reliable access to critical regional wastewater infrastructure that protects public health, the environment, and the communities we serve,” she said in a statement about the ruling. “The ongoing legal process will continue through the appropriate channels and does not impact current easement cleanup and maintenance activities.”

Ted Beresford said construction workers showed up at his Rhone Lane home in early March and tore up more than a third of his backyard, arguing the work was done without a proper permit. As they removed his pool, he said the house shook so violently that the impact could have registered on an earthquake meter.

Beresford bought the house in 2024, after the previous owner signed the settlement that allowed the sanitation district to access the easement and, if need be, remove the pool. Though he was aware of the agreement when he closed on the property, Beresford said he didn’t expect the demolition to be so extensive. After the backyard was torn up, he estimated that his property value dropped from $1.2 million to about $950,000. Installing a new pool would cost around $20,000, he said, and the district isn’t covering any of that.

Beresford said OC San’s interpretation of easement veered into ownership.

“Typically, if you have an easement, it means if that, ‘I need to get back there, you need to let me in,’” he said. “In this instance, OC San is taking land.”

Cabral said the permit issue with Beresford’s property is the result of a misunderstanding between the utility and the city of Huntington Beach. OC San had acquired a “combination permit” for the pool demolition and the construction of the block wall, she said, without realizing that a separate permit was needed for the pool. With regard to the demolition, Cabral said the previous owner had already granted OC San permission to access the backyard.

“Mr. Beresford purchased the property with the understanding there’s a signed agreement and that work would be starting,” she said.

Cabral also pushed back on the homeowners’ argument that the pipeline should be left alone just because it has not yet burst.

“These pipelines don’t last forever,” Cabral said. “We’re fortunate it’s in stable condition, but we can’t wait for it to break in order to fix it.”