The City of Oakland enjoys some of the best weather in the country, but when it does rain, the local geology presents some daunting obstacles to stormwater control.
One-third of the service area consists of steep hills with 100-year-old open drainage channels not amenable to subterranean piping. And the other two-thirds comprise the sixth most densely urbanized region in the country.
Though not directly responsible for system maintenance and construction, the city’s Watershed and Stormwater Management Divi-sion (WSMD) is tasked with the planning and funding that makes the job possible. As supervisor Lesley Estes explains, “With the City of Oakland’s recent extensive reorganization, we no longer work for the Department of Public Works. We’re now under the city’s Community and Economic Develop-ment Agency, and that includes all planning, engineering and design.”
Oakland doesn’t charge storm-water fees to residents or businesses, so that makes funding a creative process. California’s Proposition 218 set the voting percentage very high for approval of such fees. “WSMD gets a small slice of the sewer fees,” says Estes, “but beyond that I need to do some very creative funding.”
That creativity is not limited to funding; it also extends to WSMD’s stormwater solutions. WSMD won a National First-Place Clean Water Act Recognition Award from the U.S. EPA, and an Excellence in Stormwater Management Award from the California Regional Water Quality Board, for its stormwater management, creek and wetlands restoration, and educational projects.
Funding finesse
Most of WSMD’s funding comes from grants, bonds, and mitigation and redevelopment fees. Agencies providing grants (totaling $3 million to date) include:
• California State Parks Urban Access Program
• The Coastal Conservancy
• California State Parks Trails Program
• California State Parks Habitat Restoration Program
• California State Department of Water Resources
• State Water Resource Control Board.
Local bond issues have also been successful, providing nearly $15 million over 20 years. Estes credits public outreach with grassroots support for these bonds. “People appreciate the quality of life here, and don’t take it for granted,” Estes says. “It isn’t just about NPDES compliance. We help them understand the direct relationship between water quality and life quality. It has paid off with bond support as well as volunteerism.”
Mitigation fees have raised $1.25 million to date, drawing from the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans), the Oakland Army Base, and Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific wanted to rebuild a trestle over a wetland. To ensure that the wetland was brought back to a pristine state, a mitigation fee of $579,000 was assessed, to be used by WSMD for restoration.
How bad is the bay?
San Francisco Bay is a huge body of water with good tidal mixing. If you include all the sub-bays, estuaries and wetlands, it covers some 1,600 square miles. Yet it remains vulnerable to pollutants, given the high urban density around it. Water quality has been improving, thanks to programs like WSMD’s, but there are still some problems.
“We do have some problems with mercury, copper and PCBs, but there’s also the issue of sediment from the Oakland Hills area,” Estes says. “The steep slopes cause extensive erosion, and we consider those sediments a pollutant.”
Oakland represents only a fraction of the bay’s total load, but every city needs to do its part. In one case, regional monitoring traced PCBs to a source in Oakland. WSMD applied for a grant to do PCB studies and abatement.
“What we found,” says Estes, “wasn’t individual point-source barrels leaking PCBs, but a whole area in our watershed where past industrial activity had generated widespread contamination.” The PCBs were attaching to sediment in the runoff.
WSMD’s solution was a combination of street washing, sediment collection, and diversion of runoff to a treatment plant. “We collaborated with the local sanitary sewer district, and now, when it rains, we divert the first flush to one of their treatment plants,” Estes says. Problem solved.
Problems with plastic
Plastic floatables comprise a major part of the stormwater treatment load, and so does other street trash. The city recently banned foam fast-food packaging. All take-out is now packaged in biodegradable containers made from recycled paper or cornstarch.
“It was really amazing to see how fast the food vendors responded, and the number of new packaging options that emerged,” Estes observes. “It’s great to see how the actions of one city like Oakland can drive the packaging industry to provide products that allow other cities to follow our example.”
Plastic grocery bags, however, were another story. The city council passed a ban on the bags, but the packaging industry sued the city for not conducting an environmental impact analysis. “That was ironic, since the industry actually used environmental law to subvert our best intentions,” Estes says.
“Considering that the city currently has a $40 million deficit,” she notes, “we just couldn’t spend half a million dollars on an environmental impact statement. So we reacted by starting a public education campaign on the benefits of recyclable canvas or nylon bags, and that is really taking hold and making a difference. Also, instead of providing T-shirts to our citizen volunteers, we now give out canvas grocery bags.”
The packaging and grocery industries are powerful. When San Francisco began charging a fee for plastic grocery bags, the industries successfully lobbied the state to rule that such fees were unconstitutional. San Francisco reacted by passing an outright ban on plastic bags and, in that case at least, beat the litigants to the punch. By the time Oakland launched its effort, the industries had regrouped and were ready with their lawsuit tactics.
Problems in the hills
The Oakland Hills area, part of what is officially known as the Berkeley Hills Range, is only a third of the total city area, but creates a disproportionate load on WSMD stormwater efforts. The problems stem from topographic, historic and political factors.
The land is steep with relatively dense housing developed in the early 1900s when impervious surfaces and stormwater runoff were of little concern. The steep slopes, as well as ground movement from numerous faults, preclude typical underground drainage systems. The vast majority of runoff is conveyed by hundreds of natural open channels that are highly susceptible to erosion. Much of the soil is easily saturated and unstable, and massive mudslides often restructure drainage patterns, not to mention hillside homes.
“The unrestrained runoff causes what we call hydro-modification on the slopes,” explains Estes. “We’ve had to keep in mind their right to develop, but at the same time, we’ve had to impose BMPs on the development to mitigate the impact.”
BMPs include — for approval of a building or remodeling permit — habitat modification along any open channels. The right plant species can hugely reduce erosion, an example of what Estes calls bioengineering. WSMD also specifies changes in the stormwater drainage system. “What we try to do,” says Estes, “is get them to modify their drainage so it’s not so concentrated.”
In 1991 the Hills suffered its worst fire. Some 3,000 homes burned, and many lives were lost. The Oakland Fire Department responded with a strict program for control of vegetation that contributes to wildfires. In practice, that means less vegetation. And that, of course, means more erosion.
WSMD has worked closely with the fire department to ensure that the right species are planted. The right plants do not easily spread ground fires, have robust root systems that hold the soil together against erosion, and thrive in the local climate and soil. Such plants exist, and WSMD provides specific recommendations on its Web site.
Successful experiment
In one case in point, Glen Echo creek had seen significant hydro-modification, and eroding banks were threatening some structures. The Alameda County Flood Control District approached WSMD for a solution. Typically, rock and soil were dumped along the banks to shore them up. Experience had shown this was, at best, a temporary solution. Another approach was to channelize the flow using concrete or metal. But that didn’t fit with WSMD’s goal of preserving the natural appearance of the watershed.
So WSMD suggested a new and still experimental process known as soil lift bioengineering. “People didn’t like the sound of that, but we believed it could work, so we got the funding for a pilot project,” Estes says. “Of course, you have to be cautious, but you just can’t be afraid to experiment. This is a growing field, and the engineers have new ideas every day.”
Soil lift engineering uses layers of fabric-bound, compacted soil built up in a terrace-like system along the creek banks. “It’s kind of like a sleeping bag,” says Estes, “with a layer of fabric laid down, soil compacted over it, and the fabric then folded over to make a sealed system.” The terrace-like appearance is only temporary. Within a year, after the aspen, willow and other flora take hold, it appears to be natural habitat.
At the zoo
One of WSMD’s major education programs is the Creek Edu-cation Center, a permanent and popular attraction at the Oakland Zoo, that draws students from the entire area. Arroyo Viejo Creek, already scheduled for restoration, runs through zoo property and had been developed as a picnic area.
“We saw this as a golden opportunity,” says Estes. “The creek needed some significant work. But with all the children who come to the zoo for environmental education, we thought this would also be an ideal location to create an education center focused on wildlife habitats, stormwater pollution and water quality.”
WSMD built the facility, developed the curriculum, and then handed it all off to the zoo, which incorporated it into its existing educational offerings. The picnic area is still there, and it’s a lot more popular now that the creek has been restored, with broad walking trails and signage identifying flora and fauna.
But it’s also a popular destination for school field trips, with a state-of-the-art learning center run by volunteer docents under zoo management. Program titles include Creeks 101, Your Guide to Stormwater, and If Creeks Came with Instructions.
Secrets to success
WSMD’s successes to date are impressive, given the funding limitations, political opposition and geologic difficulties. Federal and state awards are a testament to the skill and creativity brought to the task. As with any winning team, WSMD has a playbook.
“We look at things in a holistic way,” says Estes. “From the Hills right on down to the ocean, we try to do what is best for the watershed. And it’s more than just stormwater BMPs. What we try to do is supplement that with habitat that not only improves the quality of the water, but also improves the quality of life.”
Another secret to success, says Estes, is simple. “Hire people who care. When you have people who care, they provide their own motivation. And on the public side, provide the people with a sense of ownership. Ownership is a good motivator.”
