Los Gatos Weekly-Times Public Works Department prepares for 'storm patrol' By Jeff Kearns Before the first winter storms start blowing in over the Santa Cruz Mountains, town crews and Santa Clara Valley Water District officials are gearing up for winter. The Parks and Public Works Department has already started sending out crews to clear debris that has accumulated in storm drains, creeks and roadside drainage ditches. Although meteorologists expect a milder La Niña winter season this year, Public works director Scott Baker says, "We take it seriously every year." As the weather gets wetter, public works staff will be pulled from other assignments, such as parks, sewers and roads, and put on a "storm patrol" that will roam the town looking for and fixing drainage problems and other flooding. Public Works has ordered 20,000 sandbags, which will be ready for distribution at the town service center at 41 Miles Ave. by Dec. 1. Last winter, more than 17,000 sandbags went out the door. Residents will be able to fill their own bags at the service center, but the water district will be distributing pre-filled bags at other centers around the South Bay. The town is contracting with the water district to "televise" major storm drains by sending a video camera down the length of the pipes to look for cracks and obstructions that may cause problems later on in the season. Although no major problems were reported last winter, some drains under the downtown area date back to the last century, and are constructed out of old redwood planks. The town runoff system, which is separate from the sewer system and sends street runoff into Los Gatos Creek and other creeks, has handled as much as seven inches of rain in three hours four years ago. Baker says the department monitors the National Weather Service Web site daily, and will be in contact with the water district's meteorological staff if the weather gets heavy. The district has a network of rain and stream gauges scattered around the valley, all of which are plugged into its emergency operations center. At the center, meteorologists can monitor the effects of storms in real time by superimposing satellite images of storms over the matrix of rain and stream gauges. (The information collected by the gauges can be viewed on the Web, at www.scvwd.dst.ca.us/emginfo/INDEX.htm.) "We can see where we might be having flooding problems," district spokesman Mike DiMarco says. The district, he added, is spending about $1 million on preparedness efforts in the West Valley, but "our biggest concern is Lexington Reservoir." Engineers are still doing pressure tests and installing new pressure sensors inside the buckled outlet pipe that runs through the dam. While work continues and the reservoir starts to fill up again this winter, the water will be drained over the spillway instead of through the outlet pipe. "We're installing a new bank of pumps to release water from the reservoir to keep it operating as it normally does in the rainy season," DiMarco said. Other district crews have been keeping up with a year-round winter preparedness schedule that started in April. [ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 4, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.