This paper describes an intensive public involvement effort to secure the neighborhood support for the replacement of a sewer interceptor through an active and concerned local community. Previous replacement efforts had failed because of public opposition and denial of permits. To build trust and credibility with the local community residents and avoid a repetition of community mobilization against a project, the team engaged the local community in evaluating and selecting a preferred replacement pipeline alternative. The project team helped the community develop a set of community values that were used to evaluate various technical approaches to the pipeline's replacement, and then empowered community members to assist with the alternatives evaluation and project selection. The project team's citizen participation effort included a series of outreach efforts, public meetings, and citizen workshops, all compressed into a 90-day period to take advantage of a roadway realignment project previously scheduled. As a result of the intense public involvement effort and the strong citizen support, the utility was willing to pursue and implement the selected alternative in spite of its potential higher construction costs, higher risks, and difficulties finding contractors willing to perform the construction work.

Creek crossings are inherently the weak points of any wastewater system due to limited access and environmental issues which complicate maintenance and repairs, and large run-off flows that can damage pipelines and manholes. The Creek Protection Project (CPP) is the primary step to helping the Sacramento Area Sewer District (SASD) increase the integrity of these critical points. SASD owns and maintains approximately 3,000 miles of sanitary sewers. Of these sewers, there are 672 pipes that cross creeks, sloughs, and/or channels. Sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) into open channels pose a risk to public health and safety and have significant environmental impacts. SASD has committed to the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board to develop and implement a program to reduce the risk of, and improve the response to, SSOs that occur at crossings.The primary goal of the project is to protect public health and safety and to protect stream health by reducing the risk of SSOs at waterway crossings. The project objectives were separated into two parts: evaluate and prepare preliminary designs for crossings deemed "most at risk of loss of structural support" by the District, and to prioritize the crossings for the development of protection plans. The work associated with these objectives was performed simultaneously.As part of the preliminary design objective, a comprehensive field investigation program was conducted for 41 crossings previously found to have significant problems. This investigation was conducted by a civil engineer, a geomorphologist, an environmental scientist, and a geotechnical engineer and in some cases a structural engineer. Based on this investigation, the crossings were categorized as "Monitor", "Preliminary Design", or "Phase 2" based on the recommended action required for the individual crossing. Using the results and recommendations from the field investigation, the District now has detailed documentation and a better understanding of their highest priority crossings. Currently, the design documents are being developed for 14 sites.The other component of the project was the prioritization of creeks for the development of creek protection plans. A model was developed using the concepts of risk analysis -consequence of failure and likelihood of failure. Due to the large quantity of creek crossings in the SASD system, the model was based on sectioning and analyzing the waterways with creek crossings instead of the individual creek crossing. Of the 100 waterway segments analyzed in the model, 17 waterways segments were found to be high priority. Creek Protection Plans were developed for these 17 waterways to assist the District during emergency situations by providing needed 784 Collection Systems 2010 information in an easy to use format.This paper discusses the project as a whole from inception to completion and provides an open discussion of the development of techniques used in the field investigations, categorization of individual sewer crossings, prioritization of waterways and creatio...