The City of Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility earlier this month was been awarded the 2020 Small Collection System of the Year from the California Wastewater Environment Association’s Monterey Bay Section.
The work of the award-winning collection team ensures public health and safety by preventing and/or responding to sewage overflows and blockages. In maintaining the wastewater and stormwater collection system, the City crew annually cleans about 160 miles of pipeline and replaces up to 5,000 feet of old pipe. They constantly service 29 pump stations and tens of thousands of residential and business sewer laterals.
The collection team also routinely inspects and cleans the City’s 67 miles of storm drains and 1640 catch basins with extra efforts focused on the three lowest-lying areas of downtown, Beach Flats and Lower Ocean to prevent flooding during winter storms. They inspect and repair five storm pumping facilities and gravity outlets including river flood control slide gates and discharge valves.
This award makes the City of Santa Cruz Wastewater System a contender for California Wastewater Environment Association’s best-in-state Collection System of the Year award — to be announced in April.
