After an 8.7-foot tide, Marina neighbors press the city on the lagoon, the sewage and the silence
Public Works Director Julian Skinner walked the Council through the January 1–5 king tide event, when the peak tide hit 8.7 feet — about 18 inches above the prediction — and put water over the street in three places: Larkspur Plaza Drive, the Larkspur Marina/Riviera Circle area, and Redwood Highway at Industrial Way. Skinner explained that the city's pump stations can't solve a tidal event: "The pump stations are sized and designed to remove the runoff from rain events... they're not sized or designed for when the creek then spills into the street to be able to pump that water back out." Long-term fixes studied regionally — levees, tide gates, raised infrastructure — carry an estimated $17 billion countywide price tag.
“In the past I have to compliment Julian because he would anticipate these storms and he dropped the level of our lagoon... This year my wife called and talked to Julian. His comment was, 'I'll probably get to it tomorrow.'”— Chris Hillard, Via Labresa resident, during public comment
The sharpest questions came from Marina residents, who focused less on 2050 and more on the Marina Lagoon's water level going into the storm. "Our street off of Riviera Circle flooded right at the beginning on the first day and never cleared it," said Mara Victor, asking whether there is a plan to improve the lagoon's ability to drain. Ted Wilson said, "It doesn't seem the city's been at all proactive this year in pumping that down... it'd be nice to know what our plan is for being able to get those water levels down before that event happens." John Quigley of 258 Riviera Circle put numbers to it: "If they lower the lagoon by a foot, that's over four million gallons of capacity... That's a lot of capacity. What it does is it buys us time." Cindy Morgan said she had "at least 8 inches of water in my garage for several days because nothing drains."
Skinner said the lagoon is "a passive water conveyance body" with no permanent pumps, and that temporary drawdowns are done rarely. He also disclosed that the contractor and the HOA had asked the city not to lower the lagoon this winter because equipment "performs better with an elevated water level" — a decision made, he said, "not having the information that we were going to get an 8.7 tide." Residents also described raw sewage in the floodwater. "We had raw sewage bubbling up in the streets... there was a lot of sewage. You could see bits of toilet paper," said John Thornton. Leanne Warner of 315 Riviera Circle asked why the city hadn't been told: "If Ross Valley had to let the state know, how come Larkspur doesn't know about that?... I don't know who to believe because there's a lot of expense that goes into decontaminating a home." The city attorney said the sanitary district's spill-reporting duty runs to the state, not to "lateral public agencies that have no oversight over them."
Council members raised communication failures — Alert Marin did not send messages, though Central Marin Police pushed real-time alerts — and asked staff to add flood contacts to the city website. Council Member Kandell asked whether the city could help damaged homeowners document losses for disaster relief and whether the storm drain master plan and Measure G funds should be rescoped for tidal backflow. Mayor Andre defended staff: "I don't think it's fair to just... our staff did the best they could at the time... all of us were caught off guard with the forecast." No vote was taken; Council directed staff to return with short-term options, cost estimates and a timeline, and to coordinate with residents, the HOA and Ross Valley Sanitary District — before the next king tide, forecast Jan 30–Feb 1 at 6.8 feet.