-- Tam Valley News --
About your Parks, Recreation, Refuse & Sanitation Services
July 1, 2022
Wishing you a safe and happy 4th of July!
The TCSD offices will be closed on Monday, July 4th in
observance of the holiday.

If you have a sewer emergency please call 415-779-9059.
There will be no changes to the garbage pick up schedule.







July 8th 6-8p


COME ENJOY MUSIC BY JUKE JOINT!

The band will start playing at 6:30pm
Thank you for coming out to enjoy our community on the 24th - it was so good to see smiling faces and happy families at our first summer event!

The next Creekside Friday is July 8 at the Tam Valley Community Center, 6pm to 8pm, featuring Juke Joint. Music starts at 6:30pm. 

Hamburgers, hot dogs, miscellaneous snacks, food, beer, wine, and other beverages are all available for sale. We also have a bounce house and other entertainment for kids.

See you there!
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EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT WASTE WATER BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK


Did you Know? 

TCSD operates a sewer collection and pumping system serving approximately 2,500 connections and approximately 10,000 people. TCSD has over 30 miles of sewer lines and force mains. We pipe approximately 10% of our sewage to the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin (SASM in Mill Valley) and 90% to Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District (SMCSD). TCSD is member agency of SASM and has a contractual agreement with SMCSD for service.

The majority of the TCSD collection system (i.e., sewer lines) was installed between 1945 and 1960, making the average age of the pipes almost 70 years old. The expected useful life span of these pipes is 60-65 years. In addition, the topography of TCSD, with a multitude of steep hills and winding roads, results in the District having about 80% more public main sewer lines in the ground per connection than a typical flat suburban community. 

While the pipes have held up better than expected for their age, they do pose on-going repair challenges due to the materials of the existing pipes and have increased operational costs to maintain and service the lines. 

Capital Improvement Goals

Replacement and rehabilitation of the lines will reduce cleaning times, Sewer System Overflows (i.e., spills) and rain and water inflow and infiltration (I&I) into the system. Ultimately, the District will save on operational costs to the rate payers because the new lines will reduce emergency responses caused by spills, potential fines and penalties to the District related to spills, maintenance costs, and I&I flows to the sewer treatment plant which has corresponding impacts to the fees we pay to SASM and SMCSD. The new lines and upgrades to the pump stations will also improve the health and safety to residents as we improve pumping redundancy and maintenance flow control. If the District did nothing, at some point, the lines would fail, regularly overflow, and/or become clogged on a regular basis all of which would cause sewer back-ups and/or spills creating health and safety issues in neighborhoods.
Figure 1 Preparing for pipe lining project
Capital Improvement Projects

To address our aging infrastructure, in 2018, TCSD updated its long-range Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) to maintain, repair, and replace the sewer system with a combination of debt and “pay as you go” cash. Over the past few years, we have been successful at replacing more pipe than expected for the prescribed budget. CIP Phases A & B have been completed. In an effort to continue to install these projects at a lower-than-expected cost to rate payers, TCSD has accelerated its CIP schedule for Phase C improvements using the savings from projects to help offset costs. The total costs for Phase C are approximately $2.9M. Phase C includes sewer main lining (i.e., slip line) and rehabilitation of over 12,000 linear feet of pipe on/near Dolan, Sheffield, Lowell, Peralta, Fern, Morning Sun, Pine, Marin, among others.

Current Schedule

In an effort to keep the community better informed of projects, we will be including updates on the website, newsletters, and via Nextdoor posts. While our contractors are required to inform residents of upcoming work that may affect their homes, we would like to broaden our outreach to the community. Below is the current schedule and location of sewer line work. 

For more information or to check for any changes to the schedule please go to www.tamcsd.org and click the sewer & sanitation tab and select sewer capital improvements for current updates.



Date Location/Work

7/5 - Marin Ave/Pine intersection: Traffic control setup due to placement of winch at manhole cover; slipline of sewer main; work hours approx. 10am-noon

7/6 - 321 Laurel Way: Traffic control setup due to placement of winch at manhole cover; slipline of sewer main; work hours approx. 10am-noon

7/6 - Dolan Ave. and Morning Sun Ave: CCTV work (i.e., “camera” sewer lines); work hours approx. 8am - 3pm

7/7 - 321 Laurel Way: Traffic control setup due to placement of winch at manhole cover; slipline of sewer main; work hours approx. 10am-noon

7/8 – 342 Laurel Way: Traffic control setup due to placement of winch at manhole cover; slipline of sewer main (approx. 10am-noon) 

NOTE: Traffic Control generally means one lane of traffic around the work site and not a road closure.