Sacramento Bee: Sacramento’s future stormwater projects get boost from $3.5 million in federal funding

Aging subterranean infrastructure in Sacramento will get a boost from $3.5 million in federal funding that will pay for future underground reservoirs to harden parts of the combined storm and sewage system within the city’s core.

The funding was celebrated Friday during a news conference in Land Park to outline the project with Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, and city leaders including County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy and City Councilman Rick Jennings. T

he project includes two underground reservoirs, at W and 25th streets in Newton Booth and near 24th and K streets in midtown, which are expected to begin construction within five years, the city said in a news release.

The reservoirs will be the newest part of a combined storm and wastewater system that exists in downtown, East Sacramento, Oak Park and Land Park, older Sacramento neighborhoods with older water management infrastructure. Other parts of the city operate separate storm and wastewater systems.

The basins will help the system divert stormwater and sewage, a function that is becoming more critical as human-induced climate change leads to bigger, more intense storms. In 2017, during then-record rainfall in the capital region, more than a million gallons of wastewater that contained sewage spilled. During another record-breaking storm last year, the city was overwhelmed trying to respond to urban flooding.

The reservoirs will be similar in function to the 6-million-gallon water vault built beneath McKinley Park, city officials said, which performed well but reached 100% capacity during the October deluge.

City officials say the upgrades are also needed to maintain water quality and keep sewage and pollutants out of area waterways during such storms.

Matsui secured the funding for the city’s utility department as part of the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending package signed by President Joe Biden in March.

“Our city’s underground infrastructure is often forgotten, but it is the workhorse of what makes our city run,” Matsui said in a statement. “The storm water and sewer system improvements will help keep city streets from flooding during storm events that overwhelm the drainage system.”

The money will be used along with revenue generated by a property tax increase expected to bring in $20 million annually that voters approved during a mail-in election last month.

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