Modesto approves nearly $144M investment to get itself out of a stinky situation
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- Modesto approved a $144M overhaul of the River Trunk sewage pipeline system.
- The aging five-mile pipeline has caused major leaks, ruptures and sinkholes.
- A 2021 failure dumped 200,000 gallons of sewage into Dry Creek near Tuolumne.
The River Trunk sewage pipeline, which holds 24% of Modesto’s domestic and commercial waste, is getting a much-needed makeover to the tune of just under $144 million.
By a 6-1 vote Sept. 23, the City Council approved the project, which includes a $60 million revenue bond.
District 3 Councilmember Chris Ricci said the project is necessary but he voted “no” because it could have been a chance to address a host of community issues, like providing sewage service to county pockets.
“There was a real opportunity to make the city better,” Ricci said, without elaborating, “and we missed it, and so I wanted to make sure people saw that we missed it.”
The pipeline is a 5-mile-long stretch running from the Beard Industrial Park in east Modesto under E.&J. Gallo Winery and then under Dry Creek before leading to the Sutter Avenue treatment plant. All along the route, it has had failures, leaks, ruptures and in some cases sinkholes due to its 50- to 60-year-old infrastructure.
William Wong, director of utilities for the city, said its unlined reinforced concrete has opened up the trunk to corrosion as sulfuric acid from raw sewage has eaten away concrete and steel reinforcement bars.
“Over the last five years, we’ve had three major collapses of the River Trunk line,” Wong said. “Obviously, they were all unexpected, but we knew that this was a problem.”
In October 2021, due to a corroded pipeline section, over 200,000 gallons of raw sewage mixed with storm runoff were dumped into Dry Creek.
As part of a three-year negotiation and settlement agreement, Modesto funded showers and bathrooms for the county’s DignityMoves project for transitional housing in the amount of $325,000 in 2024.
Raw sewage contains things like coliform bacteria, nitrate and ammonia, which can harm people and the environment.
Wong said the pipeline was built in a floodplain hugging the Tuolumne River, “and our forefathers thought, ‘That will be fine. Flood? What flood? What are the chances?’ And therein lies the problem.”
In 2016, the city identified major issues with the River Trunk sewage line, highlighted in its Wastewater Master Plan:
“The condition assessment on the River Trunk concluded that excessive corrosion is present in the entire reach of the Trunk from Beard Brook to the Sutter Plant. Isolated segments that have recently failed or are near failure were also observed. Furthermore, a segment of the River Trunk in the Gallo Property recently failed and created a sinkhole. Another segment is severely corroded, with exposed concrete reinforcement bars that possibly indicate another failure. Rehabilitation is recommended within the next five years.”
Part of the agreement with the State Water Control Board was acknowledging that the realignment project was already in the works.
The gargantuan price tag has a lot to do with the complexity of the project, largely the pump station, which eventually will serve the communities of east Modesto, Village One, the Lakewood neighborhood, Sonoma Avenue area and eventually the Tivoli development off Sylvan Avenue and Oakdale Road.
As part of the plan, rates were raised in 2021 to 3.5% a year, slowly shoring up the funds in the wastewater reserve to pay for this and other long-term projects. But the reserve alone can’t cover the cost of completion for the River Trunk realignment project.
Deanna Christensen, director of finance for Modesto, said to make up the rest of the money, the city needs to issue $60 million in revenue bonds.
“Think of it like a mortgage. You have credit companies that look to ensure that we’re financially responsible to pay for both our current debt that we have for the fund, as well as new bond proceeds.”
Without the bonds, Christensen said, ratepayers would have had to cover the $60 million all at once, “and that would have had a huge impact on the rates that would have been approved.”
Ricci said he was bothered that no members of the public commented on the almost $144 million project.
“When we talk about building other city facilities, like we’re discussing building a stadium coming up, which I suspect the city will spend less money on — significantly less, hopefully, if we do it right — there is going to be pearl-clutching and people freaking out.”
Christensen said the city has been careful to have consistent rates that don’t change drastically and provide predictable expectations for customers. “If you look at some of the neighboring cities, both from the north and south, we are on the low side compared to those other agencies,” she said.
Wong said the massive undertaking is expected to break ground toward the end of the year or early next year, weather pending, with full construction activities taking place in early spring.
In the southern section of the project, Modesto is coordinating with Stanislaus County around other projects, like the Seventh Street Bridge project.
Wong said there will be a lot of construction happening in that area with likely traffic delays. “Construction delays are just part of construction projects – they’re unavoidable,” he said. “But the good thing is they’re temporary.”
The projected timeline for completion is three to three and a half years.
“There’s nothing worse than having a sewer line spill out, overflow, or have clogs in the system where the system doesn’t work – so think of it as an investment into our infrastructure,” Wong said.
