Marin Municipal Water District outlines $328M in capital investments
The Marin Municipal Water District is planning to spend $328 million over the next five years on capital improvements.
The draft expenditure plan presented this week continues a trend of accelerated investments spurred by a rate hike approved nearly two years ago.
The program anticipates spending more than $64 million each year through the fiscal year ending 2030, nearly tripling annual project investments made between 2015 and 2024.
Between the fiscal years ending 2016 through 2025, the district spent a total of $249 million, said Elysha Irish, engineering manager.
“So this is a significant increase in our rate of investment into our capital program, which is something that we should all be pretty excited about,” Irish told the district board at a planning committee meeting Tuesday.
The district updates its capital improvements plan every two years. Irish said staff conducted a risk assessment of its infrastructure to help prioritize projects.
The budget is divided into six categories: pipelines, pump stations, storage tanks, treatment plants, watershed and system improvements.
The presentation Tuesday focused on spending for the next two fiscal years.
Under the pipelines category, the district is budgeting about $25 million annually over the next two years.
That includes $12.2 million in expenses to push ahead the “atmospheric river capture” project, a newly planned pipeline that will tap into the North Marin Aqueduct to redirect Sonoma County water to Marin reservoirs.
More than $19 million is budgeted for replacing out-of-date and leak-prone pipes in Marin City and in Fairfax, among other areas.
The district is also budgeting more than $8 million to upgrade to wireless “smart” meters and about $10 million for its “fire flow program,” which upgrades pipes to increase the water pressure and capacity at fire hydrants for firefighting.
Pump stations are also getting a $25 million a year investment the next two years, with planned upgrades at the Tocaloma pump station in West Marin and the Fairfax Manor pump station taking a good chunk of the funding.
The district is planning to spend more than $10 million on a water storage project in the Ross Valley.
The project, which began in the summer of 2023, will decommission the century-old Pine Mountain Tunnel used as a water storage tank, and replace it with two 2-million-gallon storage tanks for treated water. The tanks will be on the western side of Concrete Pipe Road near Bolinas and Sky Oaks roads on the outskirts of Fairfax.
The district also plans to replace three redwood storage tanks at the cost of $6 million.
Expenses for treatment tanks over the next two years is comparatively lower than the other categories. The district plans to spend $2.9 million next year and $6.7 million the year after for projects and maintenance.
On the watershed, one of the highlight projects is a water supply project at the Nicasio Reservoir. The district has budgeted a total of $6.5 million for the next two years to support a plan to modify the spillway gates to boost storage capacity.
Other watershed projects, amounting to about $11 million, include fire prevention and vegetation management, road repair and improvements and other projects and maintenance.
The district is budgeting $12.8 million in system improvements next year and nearly $9 million the following year. This includes building, ground, facilities and control systems upgrades and maintenance.
Irish said the draft capital improvements program will be part of the district’s budget workshop planned for May 6.
The final CIP budget proposal will be presented for adoption at the board’s June 3 meeting.
“I appreciate the ability to articulate how much is getting done, especially relative to what was done before, and how we’re making up for a lot of lost time,” said Matt Samson, the district board president. “It’s really exciting to see the modernization.”