San Mateo gears up for rainy season

Since then, the city has made substantial progress, said Public Works Director Matt Fabry, highlighting key maintenance efforts, communication improvements for residents and better data tracking. The agency also plans to have about five sandbag stations in place and clean out all catch basins, or structures along paved roads that hold runoff, by the start of the wet season. The sandbags are located at Anchor Road by the Bay Trail, at the Beresford Park parking lot and by the San Mateo Corporation Yard.

There are also plans to spot dredge at Leslie Creek and Borel Creek, though that likely wouldn’t occur until next year.

“We did get feedback from our consultant that our most bang for our buck would be spent if we did the spot dredging at the mouths of Borel Creek and Leslie Creek, which is the 19th and 16th Avenue channels,” Fabry said, adding that the consultants ultimately did not recommend Laurel Creek.

Fabry also mentioned that the city is finalizing maintenance work on one last engine at the Marina Lagoon Pump Station.

“Overall, I think we’ve invested probably half a million dollars in this pump station with everything we’ve done, in terms of updating alarms and adding additional floats, adding new transducers, upgrading the engine so there’s been a lot of work that’s been done,” Fabry said. “I think the station is in a much better position going into the rainy season.”

In December, voters approved the Community Flood and Stormwater Protection Initiative, which enacts a monthly fee for property owners — ranging from around $5 to $11 depending on property size — and goes toward upgrading and maintaining the city’s stormwater infrastructure including Marina Lagoon dredging.