RICHMOND — After decades of flooding created chaos for the people of the Rollingwood neighborhood, a recent restoration of Rheem Creek promises to bring relief during the rainy season. Residents hope the improvements last.
Since the 1950s, Rheem Creek has acted as an important drainage ditch for a community built on what once was a flood plain and tidal marsh. It runs about 3.4 miles through Richmond, San Pablo and unincorporated Contra Costa County, draining about 2.8 square miles of water into San Pablo Bay.
As time passed, sediment and debris began to build up as overgrown non-native plants greatly decreased the amount of water that could flow through the channel, causing water to disperse into nearby neighborhoods for more than 20 years.
The flooding destroyed the foundations of homes and garages, damaged building interiors and totaled cars, said Sarah Puckett, California Central Valley program director for American Rivers, an organization focused on reducing the threats of rivers and water channels.
“There was no way to maintain the creek,” Puckett said. “The channel was so full of trash but also invasive vegetation. It was so thick that you couldn’t get back into it to maintain it.”
That was until the Rheem Creek Restoration Project, made possible by a $1.6 million grant from the California Natural Resources Agency, and collaboration between numerous agencies, including the city of Richmond, the Wildcat-San Pablo Creek Watershed Council, the Watershed Project and Urban Tilth.
About 900 cubic yards of dirt was pulled out from 1,200 linear feet of the creek where it runs between the backyards of homes on Richmond’s Moyer Road and the county’s Greenwood Drive. More than 650 native plants were added to the area by Urban Tilth’s Watershed Restoration field crew. Trash pick-up events were held. And informative placards were installed that aim to educate the public on the long history of the area and the value of protecting it.
“In addition to the flood risk reduction, which is obviously hugely important for residents, this project has helped revitalize this narrow creek ecosystem in a heavily urbanized area,” said Nathan Bickart, Urban Tilth’s director of Watershed Restoration Programs. “This Creek will continue to need care and support, and we’re glad to be part of the team and the community making it happen.”
From project inception to the end of construction, restoration of Rheem Creek took about three years to complete. For the first time in years, it didn’t flood when showers drenched the Bay Area this winter.
“Once I saw that big backhoe behind the house, I thought, wow, this is great, it’s actually happening,” said Juan Perez, a Rollingwood neighborhood resident. “We’re super grateful.”
Perez and his wife, Laila Schepps, have been raising their three small children on Greenwood Drive for the last six years. The couple knew there was a ravine behind their property when they bought it. What they didn’t know was how easily water would flow up from the creek and through drainage ditches, flooding the surrounding of their home.
The couple had a small child with another on the way and were eager to invest in their new home. Those dreams burst at the start of the first rainy season.
“We got this house with the idea that we would invest money into fixing it and making it ours. The floods really changed that,” said Perez, a carpenter who was excited to settle in the community where he grew up.
Pools of water surrounded their home, flooding their crawl space, which explained the mold they had just abated. Other parts of their property were damaged, one of their vehicles almost flooded, and running even a small errand required an exhausting trek through murky water full of trash from both the creek bed and street.
About $35,000 was thrown at the problem over the years, adding new drains, laying cement and installing temporary barriers to try to prevent as much damage as possible. That figure doesn’t account for the days of work missed to stay home and monitor flooding conditions or the early mornings spent picking up sand bags.
“It’s been tumultuous to say the least. It’s been pretty horrific,” Schepps said, noting this all was happening during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Determined to bring positive change to their lives and the broader neighborhood, Perez and Schepps began reaching out to their local officials to request help, but every call led to one jurisdiction pointing the finger at the other.
Perez and Schepps shared their wonder at those who have lived in the neighborhood for decades despite flooding being a chronic problem. Many are renters, immigrants, elderly or low-income earners who may be either too busy with their day-to-day lives to repeatedly contact local officials to demand change or are apprehensive to “rattle the cage,” Perez theorized.
Regardless, Perez and Schepps said the neighborhood and others home to predominantly underserved communities deserve better from their local government.
“We think about the environmental justice aspect of it. We think about why the neighborhood struggled,” Schepps said. “It’s a bigger thing about low income neighborhoods, lower income neighborhoods and the services they receive or don’t even though they’re paying taxes.”
Puckett acknowledged the complicated jurisdictional issues behind managing Rheem Creek. While most of the flooding occurs on the county side, the creek bed falls within the property lines of those on the Richmond side, making maintenance their responsibility.
Now that the hard part is over, Puckett, Perez and Schepps all said they hope the community will safeguard the haven so many worked tirelessly to create.
“These kinds of things take more as far as stepping out of our bubbles and lives because it affects all of us, and it’s going to take all of us to combat the issue,” Perez said, sharing concerns about people continuing to illegally dump garbage into the creek.
After years of sacrifice, Schepps and Perez are unsure they’ll stay in their current home but they have peace of mind now that they won’t be passing a problem off to the next buyer. In the meantime, Schepps said she has a vision for turning their backyard into a safe place for their children to play.
Puckett said her organization is eyeing more projects in the area and will continue to educate the public on the value and importance of caring for streams, creeks and water ways in an environmentally conscious way, an important practice as extreme weather events increase due to climate change.
“This project is a model for how communities, cities, counties, residents and project partners can work together to increase resilience to climate change,” Puckett said. “We can’t prevent rain, and we can’t prevent flooding, but we can reduce the risks to the community from these atmospheric rivers.”
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