Dear Benicia Community,

As I type this, we find ourselves in the midst of another powerful rainstorm. The amount of rain we are seeing is certainly a mixed blessing. In one sense we really need the rain as it is refilling our reservoirs and aquafers and providing much needed snowpack replenishment. On the other hand, it can be damaging and even deadly.

I want to talk briefly about the City’s response to the storms. Unlike many larger cities, with multiple teams on various shifts and staff that they can call in to quickly upstaff, our small city has a very limited number of staff to respond to these storms. But also, unlike some cities, we have an amazing team that is willing to step up and work together in the best interests of the community. They are, in the great scheme of things, small things, but I think they are very important and emblematic of the commitment of this staff. Throughout this series of significant storms, staff from various departments including Public Works, Parks and Community Services, Police, and Fire all worked together to ensure the safety of our community. First of all, and without a doubt, the entire Public Works team mobilized for this storm response. Then, the Parks and Community Services team released their three parks maintenance workers into the command and control of the Public Works leadership for the duration of the storm. This greatly expanded the City’s number of emergency response workers 24/7. The Police Department issues collapsible rakes and rubber boots that they carry in the back of their patrol cars. When officers on patrol see a drain culvert getting backed up, instead of calling it in, waiting (perhaps hours) for a response or potentially diverting Public Works staff from critical work they are involved in, the officers get out and clear the culverts themselves. There is no complaining that this ‘isn’t their job’ and no complaining from Public Works staff that ‘that’s our job’…just teamwork committed to protecting this City. When the storms approached, the Fire Department changed out all their rescue chainsaw blades to wood cutting blades…and then they jumped in with great enthusiasm and energy to help with the high number of downed trees. Fire Department staff responded to a multitude of large trees that were downed by high winds. They immediately began cutting and moving the trees to clear roadways and ensure access for our residents as well as emergency responders. One of the comments I heard a lot over the last week was how quickly our teams responded and how quickly we were able to get things back open. It’s this full team effort that made that happen. Lastly, I’d like to say how much I really appreciate the new Communications Team we have created. We have volunteers from various departments that receive extra training on communications and volunteer to be on-call and available for major issues and disasters so we can quickly put information out in a more coordinated fashion. This has really helped improve communications from the City. All in all, you can be very proud of your City team.

Here is some of the work we’ve done just since January 4th:

-12 new, unique requests for service through SeeClickFix and PD Dispatch (62 since December 29)

-44 tons of sand delivered to two sandbag stations

-50 sandbags delivered to Rancho Benicia (specifically for when their stormwater pumps failed)

-5 temporary road closures

-22 distinct stormwater drains cleaned and maintained (sometimes more than one visit/cleaning)

-6 trees cut and removed from public right of way

-1 water source change to improve water quality for residential customers

-24/7 operations of the Lake Herman Dam and monitoring of Sulphur Springs Creek

-30 staff spent approximately 500 hours just responding to storm from PW including their “normal jobs”

-15 staff spent 220 hours responding just to storm from Corp Yard

-3 staff spent 60 hours responding just to storm from Water Treatment Plant (WTP)

-11 staff spent 200 hours just responding to storm at Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP)

-Zero regulatory violations at WWTP despite 24/7 monitoring/ops of 23 lift stations and WWTP while flows increased seven-fold (from 2 MGD to 14 MGD at peak)

Also, here are a couple of good resources you might check out:

For updates on snowpack: hcdec.water.ca.gov/snowapp
For updates on reservoir levels: cdec.water.ca.gov
This is a great weather website and app: www.windy.com

Please use our SeeClickFix app (or website) to report any non-emergency issues, including storm-related issues: Benicia SeeClickFix or Benicia SeeClickFix tutorial and introduction.

Stay safe,

Erik Upson
City Manager

Click Here to View the More Information About City Of Benicia Announcements Update - January 9, 2023