Are water providers ready for disaster in San Mateo County?

The report noted San Mateo County’s susceptibility to various kinds of natural disasters.

Despite the region’s vulnerability to earthquakes, wildfires, tsunamis, the grand jury found “several water providers have not conducted full-scale emergency exercises and lack adequate backup water and fuel reserves,” which “raises serious concerns about whether the water providers are adequately prepared in the event of a crisis,” the report found.

The civil grand jury investigated the infrastructure various water providers had to supply three days worth of water to its residents should a natural disaster or other emergency interrupt service. It also questioned to what extent providers were running drills for what they would do in a time of crisis, and what collaboration between service providers might look like should it be necessary.

The civil grand jury found that although providers have emergency plans, “only a few did hands-on drills, and none had run full-scale emergency exercises,” which “raises serious concerns about whether they are ready for a real crisis.”

After investigation, the grand jury found that the East Palo Alto municipal water district, the Estero Municipal Improvement District and the Montara Water and Sanitary District require varying degrees of improvements to their emergency preparedness infrastructure.

“Water service interruptions during an earthquake may be unavoidable, but how long and severe these interruptions are will depend largely on how prepared water providers and emergency managers are,” according to the civil grand jury report.

The East Palo Alto municipal water district, which serves approximately 25,519 residents, was found to need the most drastic improvements to its emergency response plans to provide water to residents for three days if necessary. Currently, the city has no water storage tanks, but a plan is underway to build the 3.6 million gallons of storage needed for today’s population, according to the grand jury report.

The Estero Municipal Improvement District provides water service to all of Foster City and parts of San Mateo, serving approximately 37,443 residents.

The special district improved its water storage by upgrading its tanks — one 8 million gallon tank and three 4 million gallon tanks — which can provide enough water for at least two days. However, it was found to not have enough emergency fuel storage to support three days of supplying water should a catastrophe interrupt the water distribution service.

The Montara Water and Sanitary District was also found to not have enough emergency fuel and pumping capability to provide emergency water to their community for a minimum of three days, the grand jury found. Diesel generators located near the water pumps can provide backup, but only for about 25 hours.

The special district serves approximately 6,012 residents in Moss Beach and Montara on the coast, and has more than 1 million gallons of water stored in several tanks. This supply could last about five days, according to the grand jury report.

Other districts were studied, including the Coastside County Water District and the Redwood City Municipal Water District, but both were found to have adequate supply and capabilities to serve residents in a time of need, according to the grand jury report.

The report also named the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors as a respondent, asking the governing body to instruct the Department of Emergency Management to coordinate disaster response preparedness with county water providers.

The report called for stronger collaboration between the Department of Emergency Management and water providers, urging the county to “improve oversight.” However, this is outside of the county department’s authority, Dr. Shruti Dhapodkar, director of the San Mateo County Department of Emergency Management, said.

Although the Department of Emergency Management is responsible for coordinating responses to disasters, it has had “minimal contact with water providers” and does not track how much emergency water is available, or whether local systems could sustain providing water during a disaster.

“If water districts want to come together and do that, we’re happy to accommodate and coordinate that, but we don’t have authority,” Dhapodkar said.

However, the department does coordinate and manage a Local Hazard Mitigation Plan that assesses risk for 26 local governments and special districts, including water districts.

The Local Hazard Mitigation Plan is a plan, updated every five years, that includes specific mitigation actions from each of the 36 participating cities and districts to prepare for various natural and manmade disasters.

It was last published in 2021, and the civil grand jury requested the Department of Emergency Management provide an update on progress of the mitigation actions, however, Dhapodkar said that is not the department’s responsibility.

The local water providers must respond to the civil grand jury’s recommendations by specified timelines over the next three years.