Cupertino Sanitary District

The Project

Since 1956, Mark Thomas & Company, Inc. (MTCo) has been the District Engineer for the Cupertino Sanitary District. MTCo provides engineering, administrative and construction inspection services for the District serving the communities of Cupertino and portions of Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, and unincorporated areas within Santa Clara County. MTCo staff oversees maintenance and operation of approximately 200 miles of sanitary sewer mains, 100 miles of sewer laterals, 4,000 manholes and 17 sanitary sewage pump lift stations. The District serves 23,000 residences and businesses in our service area. MTCo is continually developing new maintenance and administrative programs to help prevent sanitary sewage overflows and monitor the overall condition of the sewer system.

Recently the District implemented the Sanitary Sewer Overflow (SSO) Response Program in conjunction with the construction of 50 smart manhole overflow detection systems.

The Challenges

Coordination with the local cities and permitting agencies to construct the overflow detection devices adjacent to the city facilities, local creeks and in private backyards while keeping the sewage system in operation.

The Results

With increasing regulatory oversight of SSO's, all Sewage Collection Systems are required to implement a response program to handle SSO's. A key element for response is to avoid the SSO in the first place so 50 smart overflow detection devices were constructed within the District's system. These devices notify the District's staff of a problem in a main before an SSO can occur. Since the smart overflow detection system has been implemented, the District has been able to avoid four major SSO's which potentially could have resulted in District fines.