In a special meeting Thursday morning, the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District Board of Directors voted to approve an emergency pipeline relocation on the Samoa Peninsula. The project will relocate a stretch of pipeline that feeds county parkland and the U.S. Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay.That stretch of pipeline had been found to be damaged by recent high tides and is currently at risk of being undermined by king tides predicted to exceed 9 feet in early December. “District staff were informed on Nov. 12, 2025, that an air-release valve and vault on the Samoa Peninsula was damaged,” a staff report of the subject states. “Staff investigated on Nov. 13 … and discovered the recent high tides (8+ feet) had undermined the vault, and (the vault and valve) were no longer secure. Staff removed the air-release valve and vault to prevent further damage and possible failure to the six-inch transmission pipeline which serves the Coast Guard at the southern end of the Samoa Peninsula.”“When we went out right here yesterday, that was a high tide of about seven and a half feet; we’re looking at an additional two feet on top of that, which will completely undermine the pipeline,” Mares said, noting that the pipeline is about three feet deep along the stretch of shoreline. “… This is asphalt and cement pipe, which can be very brittle. So again, we do not want that pipeline exposed at all. What we’re proposing is to get out there and begin mobilizing.”“Shoreline encroachment, the process where land is lost to the sea from coastal erosion, has accelerated in this area,” HBMWD’s staff report notes. “Approximately, 20 years ago, the District relocated approximately 1,000 feet of pipeline immediately south of the current threatened pipeline due to shoreline encroachment.”Keep Reading
