With the passage of a stormwater ballot measure and a less destructive rainy season, San Mateo’s quarterly wet weather infrastructure update showed stronger signs of optimism compared to previous discussions.
During the City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 20, Public Works Director Matt Fabry provided the council with updates on projects related to the Marina Lagoon — which played a significant role in the severe flooding at the end of 2022 and early 2023 — as well as overall storm preparedness efforts. Lagoon-focused initiatives include engine maintenance and implementing better safety systems for the pump station’s trash rack cleaning. Transducers, which help measure lagoon levels, were also raised to prevent getting submerged.
“This was one of the challenges we had in 2022 and 2023, that as the levels rose in the lagoon, the transducer that we use that measures the level of the lagoon and then controls our pumps ended up getting submerged and was giving false readings,” Fabry said.
While not all of the tasks have been completed, he said much progress has been made on the top priorities, such as setting up sandbag stations and cleaning key catch basins. City staff also plan to have cameras installed in certain flood-prone areas for more effective, real-time monitoring.
During a November meeting, staff expressed concern over whether some maintenance work on some of the lagoon’s engines would be completed in time for the rainy season, citing supply chain issues and subsequent delays in receiving key parts. Uncertainty had also lingered over whether the stormwater fee ballot, or the Community Flood and Storm Protection Initiative, would be successful. The measure ultimately passed in December and will provide about $4 million each year, funding key infrastructure improvements, including full-scale Marina Lagoon dredging.
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Fabry added Flood Free San Mateo, a grassroots organization that supported the measure, donated their remaining campaign funds to OneShoreLine, an agency that works on flood-related initiatives, which will use the money for a permanent flow sensor on San Mateo Creek in De Anza Park.
Public communication and education efforts have also moved forward, with the city rolling out a public-facing dashboard tracking the lagoon’s water levels in December. Fabry noted efforts are underway to improve communication triaging when urgent issues arise, particularly for residents near the lagoon.
“The key is to be able to inform people of pending problems before they become a problem, especially if they are critical issues” he said.
Several councilmembers, including Amourence Lee, expressed support for the ongoing initiatives, noting substantial improvements since last year.
“In my conversations with some of the business owners downtown, the general sentiment is that what we’re doing is really working, and the investments and service level coming from Public Works is making a difference in their experience with these recent storms,” Lee said. “We’re getting less complaints because we are doing things right.”
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Great read and Kudos to the Department of Public Works for all their efforts!
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Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.