Meeting looks at project to avoid Acampo flooding
Judith Buethe, founder of Judith Buethe Communications, welcomed guests to a community meeting to address flooding issues in the Acampo area at Houston Elementary School’s multi-purpose room in Acampo at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Buethe also introduced speakers including San Joaquin County District 4 Supervisor Chuck Winn, Public Works Department Engineer David Mendoza and Neal Colwell, an engineer with Kjeldsen, Sinnock and Neudeck.
Winn gave background information about the project to improve drainage and reduce flooding in the area east of Highway 99 east of Peltier Road and Woodbridge Road, commonly known as Cooper’s Corner. He also addressed issues such as levee maintenance and filing complaints about flooding.
Farmers and growers have been reluctant to repair county-owned levees on or near their private property, said Winn, for fear of fines for tampering with them. He also mentioned that, this past winter, many of the levees could not handle the increase in water due to flooding, as well as making the point that the county is trying to develop additional storage facilities to capture water to replenish groundwater for dry areas.
“We need to find better ways to have runoff bypass residential areas,” said Winn.
The improvement project consisted of three phases, the first of which is emergency installation of water pumps and pipes around Cooper’s Corner. Colwell went into further detail about the second two phases, explaining that Phase 2 involved improving the Acampo Road, Gill Creek and Woodbridge Road watersheds.
“It’s an area that’s had years of flooding,” said Colwell.
Colwell explained that Phase 2 consisted of two subsections: 2A and 2B, with 2A consisting of installing more permanent pumps in Cooper’s Corner. Mendoza then elaborated on the two parts of Phase 2.
“I’m not going to tell you we’re going to solve all of the problems, but we are making improvements,” said Mendoza.
Mendoza explained that Phase 1 involved installing aluminum tubing to redirect water from floods, before elaborating on Phase 2. The goal of Phase 2A is to cut off water before it reaches residential areas, as well as increasing the capacity to move water from Brandywine Road to a ditch near Highway 99 by means of a 42-inch pipe running from Brandywine Road, through Harvest Road to Frontage Road and an 18-inch storm drain running from Acampo Road to Frontage Road and Highway 99.
Phase 2B will improve conveyance of stormwater along Highway 99 and Acampo Road, to move water away from farms, vineyards and wineries. Mendoza expects Phase 2 to begin on Sept. 18 and be completed by Nov. 20 of this year, paid for by both local funds and federal grants.
Phase 3, which Mendoza explained is still in development, will take place farther north and involve ditches along Peltier Road, starting around Weber Road. This phase will include a separate channel to convey water to Highway 99, and will be a cooperative effort with landowners involved with surface water retention facilities. The county hopes to work with growers and farmers on on-farm activities to retain flows during rain and recharge the groundwater, said Mendoza.