15 replies to this topic

[Sandman]

In front of Habit Burger.  Anybody know what's going on? The construction doesn't look like your typical gas/water/sewer pipe work.

[nomad]

Wondering too. Storing a bunch of stuff over at the Urgent Care, streets dug up, work seems to be creeping towards Riley street now. 

[ducky]

There is a very deep trench in the Urgent Care fenced-off area.  It is the Basin 6 Phase 2 Flow Diversion Project.  I think basically it's to prevent sewer overflow for a 10-year storm event after a quick skim of this document.  They did a Phase 1 and found problems they needed to correct so this is Phase 2.  They also did work or will be doing work on Orchard.  It's a February 27, 2014 agenda item.

 

www.folsom.ca.us/agendas/MG126797/AS126804/AI127502/DO127543/DO_127543.PDF

[Sandman]

Thanks.  Yeah noticed the size/depth of that trench is pretty massive.  They dug a similar trench in the parking lot across the street between Habit and Wells Fargo.  Lets hope that 10yr storm event comes soon...

[nomad]

Thanks. If only the city worked as hard on finding alternative water supplies instead of preparing for a storm that may never come...

[maestro]

There is a very deep trench in the Urgent Care fenced-off area.  It is the Basin 6 Phase 2 Flow Diversion Project.  I think basically it's to prevent sewer overflow for a 10-year storm event after a quick skim of this document.  They did a Phase 1 and found problems they needed to correct so this is Phase 2.  They also did work or will be doing work on Orchard.  It's a February 27, 2014 agenda item.

 

www.folsom.ca.us/agendas/MG126797/AS126804/AI127502/DO127543/DO_127543.PDF

 

Ducky,  thanks a million for this.    

 

City is installing huge vaults to hold raw sewage because their "cross-ties" between lines have made the situation much worse.    The Folsom Blvd. mainline for the entire city is 27" in diameter, yet 113" of lines try to pour into it.   Result is making the 27" line and other east-west lines into "force mains" instead of gravity sewers (as they were designed).    Force main means the line is under pressure and if the manholes were not all bolted down, the sewage would shoot up into the streets (instead of the river and pump stations).

 

You are precisely correct:  they are installing more underground vaults, just as they have near the river.    The Orchard line is at 4sewerdogs on www.youtube.com      There is a direct connection from a funky sewage manhole cover, down to a rainwater inlet which is marked with GREEN paint to indicate "SEWER LINE."    

 

Here's the reason for the panic:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeY5Z82AE5w

 

Construction of hundreds of houses is happening on Parkshore Drive, which is a low marsh area surrounded by Willow Creek.   Historically it is "Silverbrook Island", and couldn't be developed because of its lowness.    Magically the city is in a panic to fix bursting upstream pipes and to add hundreds of houses downstream.   (Get the trade-off?)

 

On the Folsom Blvd. side of this construction (west edge) Willow Creek is high, swollen, has red spots, has oily areas typical of raw sewage spills, has lots of growth.   Never seen it this high, and suspect raw sewage leaks could be involved.    Odor of raw sulfur was potent.   Will post video of Willow Creek, but be sure to see the creek north of this video -- go in from the sauce factory near the light rail station, and drive down to Parkshore Dr.   You cannot see anything if you go in from Blue Ravine past Winco.

 

Great work!

[maestro]

Thanks.  Yeah noticed the size/depth of that trench is pretty massive.  They dug a similar trench in the parking lot across the street between Habit and Wells Fargo.  Lets hope that 10yr storm event comes soon...

 

Look at the city website Ducky posted.    Sewage collected in this parking lot will now go directly across the street into the storage for which the huge trenchs are dug.    The underground storage is in an area people won't be able to watch.     City might install on-off valves, like other vault near  the river itself.   

 

Most of city pipes are now pressurized, and not able to function as gravity sewer lines any longer.

 

Does anyone remember in 2004 city built an open pit in Lew Howard Park to take raw sewage out of the Oak Ave sewage pipe?   The idea was to keep the pipes from breaking.   If you put too much sewage in an old line, and bolt shut all the manholes covers, something has to give.

 

Please know the city is currently spending our money to bring the FPA  sewage (5,000 acres south of 50) under highway 50, to enter this same bursting system on the north side of 50.   It saves the FPA guy perhaps 1/2 Billion up to 3/4 B.

[maestro]

Reason for big rush to do upstream work on Willow Creek:   downstream large housing development.

Huge holes, pipes, vaults,  probably enable this new housing development just downstream.    This is "Silverbrook Island" historically not built because it is quite low and surrounded by Willow Creek.     City refuses to say how this large development will connect to a city sanitary sewer line, but they are adding those vaults upstream along Willow Creek -- at Blue Ravine Road.   This development is right next to Folsom Blvd. with the city's "mainline" --   a paltry 27" line with 113" of sewage lines going into it.   FB line is under tremendous pressure, and exfiltration is what happens during a drought.

 

Take a look at creek in this area.    You'd swear there is sewage spilling there.

 

 

[ducky]

Here is another document that pertains to the project.  It's a Utility Commission meeting minutes from 8/20/13.

 

https://www.folsom.c...px?blobid=20382

[maestro]

Here is another document that pertains to the project.  It's a Utility Commission meeting minutes from 8/20/13.

 

https://www.folsom.c...px?blobid=20382

Apologies right up front for so much information coming at you this way.    It took years of research and litigation to learn what is here in a few sentences.   But you want answers, and you have a right to them.    Ducky gave me valuable info, and here's a bucket-full in return.    If anyone wishes to see the actual certified documents behind these remarks, I can tell you where to find them.    That lawsuit wherein the city sues the rest of the world over giving FPA south of 50 OUR water -- that is a dandy.   You will never again see a piece like that.    Can this board handle my file, to post to this board?

 

As for the Utility Committee Meeting minutes:     Well, that certainly is depressing stuff.    Did you know new development is required by law to pay for UP FRONT for all the required infrastructure extensions of benefit solely to them?     To read that enterprise funds are paying the costs of sewers necessitated by NEW development is depressing.    FPA  south of 50, mostly in control of one entity --  we are paying for all of their public works?   That is depressing because it is SO WRONG.      The Sac River land he bought to provide water for  S50 is now his to sell to LA for huge amounts of money!    Do you like that?    Do you like 22,000 acre feet being given to FPA for a start-up?   At your cost?   Your water?    The city does not even have total water rights to that amount during multi-year drought.

 

Wish that utility committee knew city codes & standards.    According to city laws, only the City Engineer himself can sign off on the developers plans for sewer, water, streets, etc.    He is the one man who MUST approve all of the Development Agreements, Fee payments, Inspection fees, and costs of accepting the Dedication of the public works improvements to the city.   Marcus is the Director, but he is not legally the enforcer/negotiator/inspector/approver.     He asserts the city does NOT even have a map of the full city sanitary sewage system.    Do you believe that?    Most work is now given in piecemeal contracts to outsiders.

Without the City Engineer overseeing and enforcing, we are mired in raw sewage and bone dry water supply. 

 

The City Engineer has outright denied giving me the blueprints for new developments BEFORE they are voted on and legislated into existence.    They are supposed to exist BEFORE all the laws are passed giving away our rights.    He does not have them to give me.   What the city does have, they refuse to produce as Public Records requests ask.   How can you believe in this?

 

I hope you realize the significance of the Blue Ravine sewer staff report.   New development is happening at Parkshore, and really awful storage is being added upstream at Blue Ravine.    How do I know these city "fixes" are secret and bad?    Having the actual blueprints for such city storage devices is how I know.   

 

These storage devices are like placing plastic balloons along pipes that are supposed to be adequate enough to flow by gravity -- smoothly, without interruptions  or vaults &valves, cross-ties and bolted-down manhole covers.   The person who said "doesn't look like any sewer dig I ever saw"  got it right.    If the regional water board does not re-instate the federal Permit on the Folsom sewers, the pipes could burst throughout the system.     Who likes loose sewage???  Ask your kids if 113" of pipes can deliver their sewage into a single 27" diameter pipe???

 

So far the city has spent about $1 Million on fixes to Blue Ravine.    Sewer Director Yasutake ADMITS the 27" mainline is NOT adequate.   Our dear council decides to just do vault storage and bogus "fixes" when they should have continuously been ENLARGING CAPACITY of the sewage system at the cost of new developers who bring us a need for bigger pipes.     Now we foot the entire bill for FPA and these dangerous "fixes"  -- but this is NOT what regulations require.    

 

Tell the people who are bemoaning the "south of 50 water theft."    With less water in the sewage, these sewer risks are multiplied.   The percentage of solids to liquid will make all these vaults and fixes more dangerous.

 

Don't forget 4sewerdogs:   added a video just for Ducky.  www.youtube.com 

Thanks to forum director for providing a forum for some of them to appear here.

[maestro]

 

Willow Creek "sewer improvement project"   $1/2 Million

[Rich_T]

What is it with Folsom and sewers?  It seems like the City has been getting it wrong ever since I moved here almost 20 years ago.

 

On the plus side, it seems like the work on Blue Ravine is "creating jobs", which the incumbents can proudly proclaim.  ;-)

[AMETHYST PRODUCTIVITY]

Does anyone know how long this is supposed to last? 

[ducky]

Does anyone know how long this is supposed to last? 

 

Does anyone know how long this is supposed to last? 

I have no idea, but I was proud of myself for remembering to stay on Folsom Blvd. until Glenn to avoid the mess.

[ducky]

What is it with Folsom and sewers?  It seems like the City has been getting it wrong ever since I moved here almost 20 years ago.

 

On the plus side, it seems like the work on Blue Ravine is "creating jobs", which the incumbents can proudly proclaim.  ;-)

 

It may be creating jobs, but I'm not sure they are local jobs.  I've seen a lot of out-of-state plates on the vehicles by the work site.