Larkspur Marina residents say they\u2019re not happy about how the city handled severe flooding this month \u2014 or that officials were apparently unaware of sewage leaks in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
The residents sounded off at the City Council meeting on Jan. 21, describing the inundation in the first days of the new year. Some residents, confined to their homes because of the flooding, watched water fill streets and garages as sanitation workers tried to contain raw sewage.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood along Corte Madera Creek had sewage leaks each day from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3, according to the Ross Valley Sanitary District.<\/p>\n
The district swiftly came out to handle the leaks, said Steve Moore, general manager of the district. He said the leaks were minor but it took significant work to \u201ccut the spill in half.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district reported the incident to the state as required. City staff at the council meeting did not know a leak had occurred.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood lagoon, which the city had partially drained in past years to accommodate predicted flooding, was not drained this time. That was because of an agreement with the homeowners association to keep the levels high during a construction project along the water.<\/p>\n
During the flooding, the lagoon quickly filled and spilled over, overwhelming the area and the sanitary district infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Several residents of the neighborhood spoke at the council meeting, saying the town had not been proactive enough in addressing the lagoon flood risk and did not communicate with them about the sewage leaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had known the tide elevation would have come in 18 inches higher \u2026 we would have talked to the contractor, we would have talked to the HOA,\u201d said Julian Skinner, director of public works. \u201cWe did not have the forecast that we needed to go and lower the lagoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public works staffers came in with pumps that weekend to try to manage the water levels. Skinner said the pumps could only do so much to keep up with the large amount of water, noting it took several days after the flood to bring the water level back down to normal.<\/p>\n
Skinner went on to say he was not made aware of any sewage leaks in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Ross Valley had to let the state know, I would think that Larkspur would know,\u201d said Lei Ann Werner, a resident on Riviera Circle.<\/p>\n
The city and the district conferred during the flooding, according to both Moore and Skinner. Moore said the city was \u201cdefinitely made aware\u201d and that the agency was \u201cin close contact\u201d with the municipality. He said the public works department didn\u2019t know the details of what the sanitary district was doing, but knew it was managing risk.<\/p>\n
Skinner said the representative had told him that the sanitary district\u2019s system was struggling and asked if Larkspur could do anything to address levels in the lagoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to the field rep from Ross Valley on and off,\u201d Skinner said at the meeting. \u201cHe didn\u2019t report back to me that he had any reportable occurrences throughout the event, and I haven\u2019t received anything after.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some past sewage leaks, the sanitary district informed Larkspur about the situation, Skinner said, but he did not know the conditions that led to that reporting.<\/p>\n
City Attorney Sky Woodruff said the district is not mandated to report to Larkspur.<\/p>\n
Some residents expressed shock that the city was not aware of a sewage leak in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m struggling as someone who clearly had toilet paper all over my driveway that I was picking up,\u201d said resident Cindy Morgan. \u201cI\u2019m having a hard time wrapping my head around this lack of reporting that\u2019s required. \u2026 It\u2019s a huge health risk to have raw sewage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Moore said the leak posed no added risk to public health because \u201cflood water already contains harmful bacteria.\u201d He emphasized that residents should always avoid contact with flood water.<\/p>\n
The leaks were small enough that no additional testing or cleanup was required, Moore said.<\/p>\n
Councilmember Scot Candell asked staff if they could inquire about the sewage leaks and make more information available to the public.<\/p>\n
Mayor Stephanie Andre said after the meeting that she directed staff to contact the district to seek a report about the leaks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t aware,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing forward, I\u2019ve directed our staff to be in communication with the Ross Valley sanitary staff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Larkspur Marina residents say they\u2019re not happy about how the city handled severe flooding this month \u2014 or…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[203952,2356,205670,192,1023,203956,203953,205671,2558,983,5415,3,4910,5413,7234,205672,79],"class_list":["post-434432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-2026-storms","tag-california","tag-corte-madera-creek","tag-environment","tag-flooding","tag-larkspur","tag-larkspur-city-council","tag-larkspur-corte-madera","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-marin-county","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-ross-valley-sanitation","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}