San Mateo’s winter storm prep efforts improve

"I think that storm got everyone's attention," said Rich Kranz, a longtime resident whose house was part of the flooding.

The city and residents pinpointed several points of failure leading to flood-induced damage, one culprit being engine failures at the Marina Lagoon pumping station.

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.

Kranz said he is pleased with the progress that’s been made thus far, citing a new electronic tracking and alerting systems, as well as camera installation near high-risk areas.

"That system was technically there before but it was out of date. The new operating system is much more reliable, so we can sleep at night,” Kranz said. “I’m very confident. We are in much better position than we’ve been in the past.”

But some structural challenges at the Marina Lagoon station remain, Fabry cautioned.

“We've learned through the New Year’s Eve 2022 event that our pump manufacturer does not recommend that our pumps pump below a certain level, which is 95 feet,” he said. “The dock maintenance level is lower than that, so it's a challenge for us in terms of figuring out if there is a way we can provide a dock maintenance period for people at the lagoon without putting our flood control infrastructure at risk.”

The city is also working on both short- and long-term dredging efforts, which also help prevent flooding by removing built-up sediment. But the localized spot dredging requires a permit, which has a limited timeline throughout the year.

“Unfortunately, our permit only allows us to do the dredging within a certain window, which is between April and October, so we’re not going to be at a point where we are going to be able to get the dredging done before October,” Fabry said.

The city also attempted to secure federal funds to help support the large-scale dredging. While the effort wasn’t successful in the short term, Fabry said San Mateo was listed in the Water Resources Development Act, which “gives us the ability to work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers … to develop any kind of project and then hopefully get larger scale funding,” he added.

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 — which goes toward upgrading and maintaining the city’s stormwater infrastructure including Marina Lagoon dredging.

alyse@smdailyjournal.com

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