$2 million in federal aid to improve Madera's storm drainage and sewage system

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- The City of Madera is getting $2 million in federal aid to improve the city's critical storm drainage and sewage system.

"The City of Madera has been asking for these funds for four years and thank god that today we're going to get the system in place to get this done because nobody wants to see flooding in our streets or our sewer system to be backed up," said Mayor Santos Garcia.

The city experiences flooding often in the winter and congressman John Duarte, who helped get the funding, saw that firsthand.

"Mayor Santos Garcia sent me a photograph in the torrential floods of January 2023 where the sewer line for Madera just blew a hole in it and he was looking for federal help to get that fixed," Congressman Duarte said.

On Friday, that federal help arrived.

The city's Sewer Trunk Main Project received $1 million to improve and replace up to 1.7 miles of sewer main pipelines along Pecan Avenue from Grenada Drive to Highway 99.

That Pecan Avenue sewer main carries 40% of the sewage from the city and other surrounding county areas to the local wastewater plant.

The other million dollars will be going to the city's storm drain pipeline replacement project-installing over 10,000 feet of underground storm drain pipelines, manholes, and more.

"Our community does not want to see flooding in our community," Mayor Garcia explained.

"They don't want to see water coming through their homes. They don't want to see that happen so as much as we can get that system in place, that infrastructure, that's what we want to see."

Those new or repaired pipelines will be installed along Howard Road, Granada Drive, and West Almond Avenue to help reduce reoccurring flooding in the area.

"We had a significant amount of rain come down and we had flooding," Mayor Garcia said.

"Just a couple weeks ago, when we had our city council meeting, we had flooding in this area so we need to get that water out, we need to flush that water out and this bill will help us make that happen."

The planning for the projects is underway, but completion will take a few years.

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