Santa Rosa seeks $17 million to protect against future disasters

Santa Rosa is asking the federal government to help it pay for $29 million in local infrastructure projects to protect the community against natural disasters.

Several of those projects, however, have little to do with protecting the city against fire. Instead, they involve projects such as protecting a wastewater treatment plant against flooding, updating flood maps, and installing backup batteries on traffic lights.

City officials say the federal emergency funds being made available to California in the wake of the October firestorm don’t have to be related to wildfires.

The so-called “hazard mitigation” dollars will be doled out by the state on behalf of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to whatever communities show they have the greatest need, said Neil Bregman, the city’s emergency preparedness coordinator.

“They don’t discriminate against the type of hazard,” Bregman said. “That’s just the way they have designed the system to work.”

According to California Office of Emergency Management, the October 2017 wildfires prompted FEMA to make $333 million in hazard mitigation funds available to the state.

The Santa Rosa City Council recently signed off on nine grant applications requesting $17.1 million in such funds. The city’s share of the projects would be $11.5 million, bringing the total project costs to ?$28.9 million.

The funds are separate from the $111 million in public disaster assistance the city requested in May for fire damage and emergency response, such as repairing roads, replacing melted storm drains and streetlights, and rebuilding the Fountaingrove fire station destroyed in the Tubbs fire.

It’s impossible to say how much of the hazard mitigation money the city might ultimately win.

Communities directly impacted by the underlying disaster are only slightly favored in the selection process, Bregman said.

Jason Nutt, the city’s director of transportation and public works, said the reason the money is not limited to the area hit by the disaster or to protecting against similar events is because the federal government has an interest in helping communities become resilient against all disasters.

“It’s an opportunity for entities statewide to try to address and prepare for any disaster that could be coming forward,” Nutt said.

The nine projects the city has asked to be funded under the program are aimed at improving the city’s ability to withstand earthquakes, fires and floods. In order of size, they are:

$12.7 million to build a wall to protect the Laguna Wastewater Treatment Plant against flooding. Request: $5 million.

$5.9 million to bring three water storage tanks - two in Fountaingrove and one in Bennett Valley - up to current seismic standards. Request: ?$4.4 million.

$4.6 million to replace natural gas backup generators with diesel ones at the city’s 22 water and sewer pumping stations. Request: $3.4 million.

$2 million to develop early wildfire detection and notification options, such as cameras or sirens. Request: $1.5 million.

$1.4 million to outfit 175 traffic signals with battery backup power to help evacuation efforts in an emergency. Request: ?$1.1 million.

$1.4 million to create a master plan for the city’s 322 miles of storm drains to understand their vulnerability to floods. Request: $1 million.

$525,000 for a chipper program to help homeowners create defensible space and reduce fuels around homes in the ?wildland-urban interface. Request: $394,000.

$200,000 to update maps showing what areas of the city would flood in the event dams such as the one at Howarth Park were to fail. Request: $150,000.

$188,000 to install a larger backup generator for the police and fire department building on Sonoma Avenue. Request: $141,000.

The staff report to the council marks the first time city officials have publicly described the challenges they faced with backup generators meant to ensure water pumps continue operating during a power outage.

Water officials previously have declined to describe to what extent the loss of backup generators contributed to the water pressure problems that firefighters faced as they attempted to fight the Tubbs fire in the hilly Fountaingrove area.

The backup generators in the area are powered by natural gas.

At some point during the fire, PG&E turned off the natural gas supply to the area. That left the city with few options for keeping the generators - and therefore the water pumps supplying the area - running.

“It’s difficult to get a propane truck into a fire zone,” said Joe Schiavone, deputy director of operations for Santa Rosa Water. “Not impossible, but difficult.”

Nutt said a number of auxiliary diesel generators were ultimately acquired and used in the days after the fire to power the pumps.

It’s not clear why natural gas backup generators were selected in the first place for installation in a fire-prone area.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.