Sausalito aims to streamline sewage services 

Sausalito is moving closer to transferring its sewage collection to the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District.

The City Council voted unanimously Dec. 17 to authorize a memorandum of understanding between the two entities, the first step to an official transfer. The district would maintain and manage the city’s 21 miles of sewage collection facilities.

The move would consolidate billing and could increase savings for residents.

“First and foremost I think everyone can agree that the safe and sanitary disposal of sewage is essential for public health, protecting water quality, environmental health and supporting economic activity,” said Chris Zapata, the city manager. “Without sewage you don’t have a civilized society.”

The memorandum of understanding is a nonbinding agreement that details what actions are needed to move forward, like public outreach requirements and making a transfer schedule, Zapata said. It also outlines how the district will repair or replace several sewage lines over the next 10 years — a project resulting from the city’s collection system condition assessment — and how to address sewage system debt like the city’s $5 million bond.

Councilmember Jill Hoffman asked who would accept the responsibility of paying the bonds. Zapata said that could be a sticking point and the city needs to do some work to best understand the bond contract and process.

The city has been meeting with the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District for a year to discuss transferring the city’s sewer collection system to the district to manage. The City Council directed staff to do a feasibility study on the idea in 2020.

Sausalito’s sewage system discharges into the district’s interceptor pipelines, which go into a wastewater treatment plant just south of the city. Residents get two bills: one from the city for collecting the sewage, and one from the district for moving and treating it.

“What that means is we have two district government agencies, two different oversight boards. We have two different workforces, two different billings, two different rate reviews. We have different communications that we do differently than the district does from us,” Zapata said. “All of that is complicated, and to unwind this and make it simpler is one of the objectives of this exercise.”

Much of Sausalito’s collection equipment is more than 50 years old, according to a staff report. The collection system is mostly on the hillsides and uses a gravity flow system to move waste, except for some low-lying areas that use four pump stations the district operates.

Zapata said staff will go back to the City Council in February after talking with the district. He said he understands there is a history surrounding other utility transfers, specifically with fire districts and departments, but said the sewage transfer is “a totally different thing.”

“Because of the caution that we all feel based on previous metamorphosis of agencies here in Sausalito, the community is going to want a much more in-depth description of what’s going to happen and how we’re going to be impacted by that, and that’s going to happen before this actually goes into effect,” Hoffman said.