Monday’s monumental storm likely would have caused significant damage no matter how prepared San Diego was.
But the extensive, in some cases life-changing wreckage almost certainly would have been reduced — by how much will be the subject of ongoing disputes — if the city had kept up with necessary stormwater projects to improve drainage and lessen pollution flowing into waterways.
San Diego has a long history of falling short in flood-prevention works, which is the largest subset of an overall infrastructure gap.
A year ago, a city report detailed how the infrastructure backlog — the gap between projected infrastructure needs over the next five years and the funding available for them — climbed from $4.32 billion from January 2022 to $5.17 billion. Some expected future costs were not included in the study because the amounts were unknown, meaning the total was likely higher.
Costs for stormwater projects increased from $1.4 billion to $2.1 billion — “the highest cost of any city infrastructure need,” according to David Garrick of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Available revenue drops the stormwater capital gap to just below $2 billion.
The city’s failure on flood control is exposed in nearly every substantial storm, even those far less intense than this week’s record downpour.
Further, flooding tends to be worse in some of the lower-income, ethnically diverse neighborhoods in southeastern San Diego, such as Mountain View and Southcrest, where residents have been complaining about the problem for years.
The situation has led to numerous claims and lawsuits against the city, which has paid out millions of dollars in damages.
In one example, residents of Southcrest sued the city in 2019 after their community was repeatedly flooded. The attorney who represented them, Evan W. Walker, this week said his clients eventually settled for a sum in the neighborhood of $200,000. Walker added he had heard from some of the residents after the recent rains.
“Just yesterday, some of the Plaintiffs’ homes were flooded again, even worse than before,” Walker said in an email Tuesday.
Beyond the legal liability, the cost of physical damage to private property and public facilities has added up. Governmental agencies across the region are working to determine the latest toll, which is needed to unlock state and federal aid.
The city issued a statement on Monday acknowledging the heavy rainfall overwhelmed “an aging stormwater system with limited capacity.
“Monday’s record rainfall revealed the fragile state of the City’s stormwater infrastructure and the need for significant investments going forward to prevent the current situation from becoming the new normal for San Diego.
“Prior to the storm,” the statement added, “the City had several hundred employees out in the field clearing storm drains and doing other prep work to help reduce flood risk citywide.”
Beyond providing adequate infrastructure, the city has been unable to keep up with maintaining what’s there. Efforts to keep culverts and drains clear have increased, but are still not enough.
City s, public works officials and auditors for years have warned elected officials of the precarious state of the stormwater system.
During and after Monday’s storm, Mayor Todd Gloria and some council faced criticism from election opponents and community activists about the lack of infrastructure investment.
The responsibility rests not only with current officeholders, but many who served before them.
In 2020, the Union-Tribune wrote that then-Mayor Kevin Faulconer was leaving his eventual successor (Gloria) what then was more than a $1 billion gap in funding for projects to protect against flooding and polluting rivers and beaches.
In 2018, the city auditor released a blunt report about the city’s need to address significant stormwater-project funding shortages.
It’s not that the mayors and council weren’t listening. At least twice, they made moves to take a major step to close the shortfall, but didn’t follow through.
In 2016, then-council President Gloria talked about asking voters to approve a big bond or some other kind of loan mechanism to upgrade the city’s infrastructure.
In 2022, council were considering putting a tax measure on the November ballot specifically for flood-prevention and water-quality projects.
“If we don’t invest in our stormwater infrastructure, we’re going to be paying much, much more of our taxpayer money in emergency repairs,” Councilmember Marni von Wilpert said at the time.
But a poll commissioned by ers gave them pause. If the council put the measure on the ballot, it would have required two-thirds approval by voters. While the poll showed the proposal had significant majority , two-thirds was in doubt.
Court rulings over the years would allow such a proposal to with a majority of voters — if it is put on the ballot by a citizen’s initiative rather than a governmental agency.
Many cities in California and across the nation have fallen behind on infrastructure improvements. Some jurisdictions, however, have taken steps to improve the situation. Such an effort seems unlikely anytime soon in San Diego.
A countywide initiative recently qualified for the November ballot to raise a half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. Meanwhile, city officials are contemplating placing a 1 cent sales tax before voters to help fund city operations. Already there are questions about whether that’s asking too much of voters in one election.
The city of Los Angeles ed a $500 million bond in 2004 to address flooding and improve water quality. In 2018, Los Angeles County ed a parcel tax to, among other things, address toxic runoff and clean up its rivers.
Gloria, like Faulconer before him, has touted his istration’s increased spending on infrastructure improvements, particularly regarding roads, and especially filling potholes.
In his Jan. 10 State of the City speech, Gloria discussed what he’s doing to address four challenges facing the city: homelessness, housing, public safety and infrastructure.
During the infrastructure segment, he briefly mentioned “decaying pipes and stormwater culverts,” and then spoke at length about improvements to streets, sidewalks and streetlights.
He also highlighted Pure Water San Diego, a multibillion-dollar project under construction that will turn wastewater into drinking water. “No infrastructure project in recent history is larger or more ambitious,” he said.
Less than two weeks later, much of the city was talking about the need for water projects of a different kind.
