Saratoga News

Gillian Moran

Saratoga faces long process in shoring up its sewer lines

By Sarah Lombardo

There is a project afoot that Saratoga Mayor Gillian Moran calls "not the most glamorous undertaking." That could be an understatement. It's the West Valley's sewers, and the West Valley Sanitation District is beginning to take a look at replacing and repairing them, some of which--in Saratoga, at least--are upwards of 80 years old. It's a subject many people never think twice about but one that Moran said is an issue.

"That sewers last forever is a pipe dream. They do not," she said. "What we are planning on doing is assessing the condition of all sewers in the district and developing a plan for what needs to be fixed and what needs to be replaced."

Bob Reid, the WVSD district manager, said the project is still only in its early stages, but sprang from a project scheduled to begin next summer in which sewer pipes near Town Hall in Los Gatos will be replaced or rehabilitated. Los Gatos experienced a series of chronic problems during storms in which the sewers would get too full. In 1994, one Los Gatan even filed suit against the district and the city, claiming that sewage repeatedly overflowed onto her property. The district called in a consultant and made plans to fix the problems, but, Reid said, "we also know others need work. ... It led the board to decide that this is really a project we should look into."

And in a district that covers about 30 square miles with almost 420 miles of sewer lines and 60 basin areas, Reid said, the project will be a big one, spanning years.

"What we're looking at is a real long-range program here," he said.

Currently, the district is in the process of creating a map of all the basins in the district and researching their history, looking at how often and well the sewer lines have been maintained and what shape they are in now. That information will be combined with the basins' locations, and a list of priorities will be established, identifying which basins will be examined more thoroughly and in which order. Reid said the district hopes to have that done by spring. Some of the sewer basins that Reid expects could be first in line for further evaluation are located in Campbell, Los Gatos and the Saratoga Village, which Reid said has sewers dating back to about 1910.

"Those areas, based on age alone, will probably show up high on the list," he said.

Once that is done, Reid said, the basin chosen to be checked first will undergo a series of tests to more precisely determine its condition. Closed-circuit cameras and smoke or dye--methods used by the district and the city a few years ago to determine if sewer lines were entering Saratoga Creek--will be run through the sewers. After the basins are all checked, the decision will be made as to which ones get rehabilitated and in which order, and--the big question--how it will all be paid for.

Reid said funding for the research into the basins' condition is not a worry for the district at this point. "We've got fairly healthy reserves right now," he said. "For the time being what we are doing is mainly through staff effort." But for future work, Reid said, the district will have to explore a variety of funding options, from a regionwide fund to a revolving state fund available for specific projects. "Other than that, I would guess we would have to identify how much money we need and what funding sources we can tap into and possibly raise our rates at some point," Reid said, stressing that they have not been raised in years. The sewage rate for a single-family residence stayed at $198 a year for the third year in a row when the district adopted its 1996-1997 budget.

But raising the rates brings up Proposition 218, passed one year ago this month, which restricts local governments' ability to raise or impose taxes or fees without the approval of voters. The proposition, some say, hampers the way in which many local governments control traditional sources of revenue.

"We are all aware of the constraints that are posed by Proposition 218," Moran said. "Raising money will be challenging."

Maybe not so much challenging as expensive, Reid said. It is the district's understanding, according to Reid, that water, sewer and garbage rates can be increased without a public vote. Instead, the district might have to simply notify all the affected residents that rates are going to be increased on the basis of need and give them a detailed explanation for the hike. In the past, the rate increase needed only to be noticed in the local newspaper. But, Reid said, notifying the public can be costly.

"It's going to cost us quite a bit of money to notice and provide a lengthy information package," he said.

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