Oakland, Calif. – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) granted $2.3 million to Sonoma Water to provide Ely Booster Station protection against a 500-year flood and 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Work will include sealing and elevating electrical equipment above the 500-year floodplain, replacing the pump motor housing structures and switchgear equipment, and anchoring equipment critical to the operation of the booster station.
Ely Booster Station is located within five miles of the Rodgers Creek Fault and sits in a 100-year floodplain, and local assessments identified issues that threaten its reliability during a flood or seismic event. Historically, the station has been inundated by floodwater during the rainy season, where extreme elevations of water threatened operability and raised safety concerns for onsite personnel.
As part of Sonoma Water’s transmission system, Ely Booster Station supplies water to over 310,000 residents in Marin and Sonoma Counties by pumping potable water to the City of Petaluma, the North Marin Water District, and the Marin Municipal Water District. Completion of the project will mitigate the risk of Sonoma County residents losing this precious resource in the event of a disaster.
The $3 million project will be funded by a $2.3 million hazard mitigation grant from FEMA, with non-federal sources covering the remaining $700,000.
FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program helps states, territories, federally-recognized tribes, local communities and certain private, non-profit organizations become more resilient to potential infrastructure damage and reduce future disaster costs.
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