_{Thumbnail image: The red triangles are areas within the sewage system within County Service Area 1 north of Crescent City limits that have defects. Image courtesy of Del Norte County Engineer Jon Olson}

Noting that staff has identified more than 100 defects in the sewer collection system north of the city limits, Del Norte County Engineer Jon Olson got the green light to get an inside view of the pipes using closed circuit television.

Olson told supervisors on Tuesday that his goal is to document the location of each defect in Assessment District 2 of the County Service Area, or CSA. Assessment District 2 includes the unincorporated part of Crescent City North as well as Northcrest Drive north of Washington Boulevard and the area surrounding Sutter Coast Hospital and Walmart. 

The county engineer showed a picture of one of the classic defects — a mowed-over sewer cleanout cap in a low area of the yard. That defect allows rainwater to enter the system, Olson said. Another photo was from the outside of a commercial building, he said.

“You have a rain gutter coming right down onto an 8-inch wide open cleanout,” he said. “Every time it rains, water is pouring into the system from that location.”

The Board of Supervisors approved Olson’s plan to repurpose $450,000 in savings from a project at the Roy Lift Station and use it for the CCTV condition assessment of the Assessment District 2 collection system. According to Olson, that money is from customer user fees.

They also authorized Olson to move ahead with a sewer rate study next fiscal year. Olson said he would approach the State Water Quality Control Board to find a contractor who could conduct the analysis.

“That’ll basically be a financial projection out (for) five years,” he told supervisors. “We’ll be able to include at that time the capital improvements we’re going to need. It shouldn’t cost any money out of the CSA because they’ve provided that type of technical assistance in the past.”

The county engineer anticipated coming to the Board of Supervisors with potential rate adjustments, which would initiate a Proposition 218 protest period, in early 2029. However, District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey noted that even if the county initiates a rate study, that doesn’t necessarily mean people’s user fees would increase.

“I don’t want us to get into the situation that we did in 23/24, where the hikes are so incredible it really hurts people,” she said.

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard was absent.

The Board’s decision to approve a rate study comes about after supervisors approved a five-year user fee increase in 2023. The increase was necessary to avoid a deficit in the CSA’s operating budget. Before that 2023 decision, rates hadn’t increased since 1980.

Between fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2027, rates had increased from $72 annually to $166.12 annually. They will increase again in fiscal year 2028 from $166.12 to $176, Olson said. 

Those user fees are included with the property tax bill owners receive each year, Olson said.

“Due to that rate increase we were able to increase our spending on operation and maintenance and put a little bit of money in the piggybank,” he said. “Last fiscal year we increased our fund balance by $590,000.”

The County Service Area consists of about 40 miles of sewer pipes in two assessment districts, Olson said. In addition to the Crescent City North area, there’s Assessment District 1, which is the Bertsch-Oceanview neighborhood. AD 1 serves about 2,500 people while AD 2 serves nearly 7,000 people. 

Collectively, 35% of the Del Norte County population receives their sewer service through the county, according to Olson. Del Norte County has a maintenance contract with the City of Crescent City, whose public works staff does basic maintenance on the system. There are nearly 600 manholes and cleanouts and 15 lift stations, Olson said. The outflow eventually goes to the city wastewater treatment plant.

A CCTV inspection of the collection system serving the Bertsch-Oceanview area uncovered areas where water was infiltrating the system, according to Olson. Those defects included broken laterals and low areas in the system where fats, oils and greases could accumulate, Olson said. 

Once the CCTV project is finished for AD 2, Olson said, he would be able to determine the costs of critical repairs.

“I don’t think we’ll have enough funding to fix every repair,” he said. “We can look at what they call the gushers and fix those first and work our way down through the hierarchy.”

Del Norte County’s CCTV project of CSA 1 comes as Crescent City initiates a pilot project to make spot repairs to its collection network to prevent groundwater from getting into the sewer system. The city’s collection system consists of 17 miles of sewage pipes, according to City Manager Eric Wier.

Groundwater infiltration and aging equipment prevents the sewer plant from meeting stricter National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit rules governing total coliform and enteral cocci bacteria, Wier told the City Council last week. Councilors approved an agreement with the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board allowing the city to apply a $258,000 toward the cost of the project.