Flood board focuses on aging pump stations, outfall repairs and a $5.5M 2025 work plan; trash-capture, Shorebird Marsh pump replacement planned

Board members and public works staff spent much of the April 14 meeting reviewing aging flood-control infrastructure, recurring gate and transducer failures, outfall pipe corrosion and the town's 2025 capital work plan.

Public works staff reported that several pump stations and gates are 20 to 37 years old and increasingly difficult to maintain because replacement parts are scarce. Staff said a transducer failure at the San Clemente pump station had been caught and repaired, but the adjacent San Clemente floodgate requires a controller replacement because the gate's original controller no longer interfaces with new transducers.

The board heard that routine gate and pump maintenance is performed twice yearly, in fall and spring. Staff said some pump stations can be powered from portable generators in emergencies but that not every pump station has a dedicated backup hookup and large storms with prolonged outages complicate response times and access.

Outfall pipes into the bay are corroding or buried and will require environmental permitting and property access for replacement, staff said. Several outfalls previously had check valves that are no longer functioning; staff told the board they plan to add two inboard check valves and replace one broken valve this year to reduce tide-driven re-entry into the storm system. A board member said there are “about seven” outfalls in town; staff said they would confirm the exact count.

Lagoon 1 pump station was described as functioning but with corrosion and end-of-life sacrificial anodes that staff plan to replace. Staff noted that after the High Canal pump station was installed, Lagoon 1 and Lagoon 2 have a smaller role because water can be routed to High Canal for pumping.

The board reviewed the public-works 2025 work plan, which staff described as roughly $5.5 million in town capital-improvement projects for the year plus separate sanitary-district projects budgeted at about $10 million. Projects highlighted included urgent pump-station repairs (roughly $900,000 of near-term repairs split across two years), storm-drain priority repairs, canal and open-channel maintenance, a multiyear Shorebird Marsh pump station replacement (staff estimated $8–9 million for that project), and two large trash-capture devices required under the town's NPDES obligations and funded by an EPA grant.

Staff said the large trash-capture devices will require periodic vacuum-truck cleaning, likely at least twice a year, and noted the disposal location for captured material remains an interagency question the countywide stormwater agency is coordinating. Board members also discussed opportunities to eliminate or consolidate small pump stations (for example, “Big G” pump station) but staff said such changes would require major capital improvements to other facilities and detailed mapping.

Several board members asked for practical community measures for tide-plus-storm events, including clearer guidance on when roads should be closed, staging materials and barriers, and public education to discourage driving through flooded streets. Staff said residents should call the Corte Madera nonemergency police number after-hours; police will forward to public works on-call staff. Board members agreed to develop draft road-closure guidance and consider staging signs and barriers ahead of winter tides.

The board also discussed next steps for public engagement, tours of pump stations for new board members and coordination with regional agencies and studies on sea-level rise. Staff and members suggested future agenda items on regional coordination, a lagoon working group and potential grant assistance for homeowners who want to raise houses.

Votes at a glance

The board approved the minutes from the Aug. 12 meeting at the start of the session; the mover, seconder and individual vote names were not specified in the meeting transcript; the chair called for “Aye” and approval was recorded.