City: More Money Needed to Fix Sewer Leaks

Ever since the city was into the Bay, San Bruno has been steadily trying to fix the problem before anything happens again. 

The city has for several years been working with a contractor, West Valley Construction, that has been fixing leaks found in sewer mains and laterals. 

But the cost to make urgent repairs needed to prevent future sewage spills has suddenly went up. 

The City Council will be voting at at 7 p.m. whether to increase West Valley Construction’s contract by $60,000 through the rest of the year to make the sewer repairs. The company already is getting paid $175,000 a year to perform the work. 

As part of the settlements recently reached with San Francisco Baykeeper and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, the city is being required to immediately take a number of steps to fix its aging sewer system to prevent leaks and sewer overflows. 

One of those steps is to clean or repair any section of sewer line that could potentially cause a spill. According to a city staff report (attached), a number of sewer mains requiring significant maintenance or repair have already been identified and Westvalley has the only group of workers qualified to perform the necessary work. 

“Without contractor assistance, staff would be unable to timely respond to all urgent repairs without deferring other longer-term maintenance projects and incurring high overtime costs,” the report said. 

In other action, the council will be discussing in a public hearing whether to transfer the development agreements for 12 homes that were supposed to be built as part of the Skycrest Village project to a new developer. 

The original developer, Skycrest Partners, was supposed to build 24 new homes next to Lunardi’s but didn’t proceed with the last 12 homes after the housing market began to decline. Now, a new developer, D. R. Horton, is interested in taking on the project.