FPUD grants quitclaim of DeLuz easement and facilities

Fallbrook Public Utility District granted a quitclaim of an easement on a DeLuz property along with pipelines, a pump station, and a tank within the easement.

FPUD’s board voted 4-1 March 24, with Archie McPhee opposed, to declare the Arterberry tank, pump station, and associated pipeline and easement as surplus and to quitclaim the easement to W.R.A. Survivors Trust, which is the formal owner of the property known as ACW Farms.

“There was no salvage value to the tank or piping. They just quitclaimed the easement and the equipment to the ranch,” said FPUD general manager Brian Brady.

In 1990, the DeLuz Heights Municipal Water District merged with FPUD, which thus inherited the Arterberry tank and pump station. “Even at that time they were inoperable assets,” Brady said.

The tank and pump were not being used at the time of the merger, nor have they been used since. The tank, pump, and pipeline have not been maintained and are in disrepair. “Engineering looked at the condition and the need for these particular facilities and found that they were obsolete,” Brady said.

FPUD assistant general manager Jack Bebee determined that FPUD had no future need for the facilities. ACW Farms itself does not need the facilities for its water service.

ACW Farms offered to pay the $6,000 cost to process the quitclaim, which conveys the facilities as well as the easement to W.R.A. Survivors Trust. “The district determined that it would cost more money to try to remove the facilities than any potential salvage value,” Brady said.