History

With the development of Ridgemont and the rechanneling of runoff waters through the Quarry and into Chimes Creek, the rains of 1986 caused property below Nairobi, between Oakdale and Hillmont, to erode to the point where one of my neighbors, Richard Rodriguez of 6149 Hillmont Drive, lost 110 feet of his backyard. The County of Alameda held a neighborhood meeting at Burbank Elementary to discuss measures to mitigate the erosion problems to the Creek. Mr. Rodriguez ended up bringing a suit against the City in 1987 and won.  Repairs where made to the Nairobi section and below by the County and the City around 1989-90.  Neighbors at the Nairobi section of Chimes Creek have told me they continue to have significant problems with overflow into their yards.

Sewer lines became exposed.  The Nairobi sewer line became exposed around 1986.  When sewer lines were installed, Chimes Creek was the lowest point on the topography of the area and the City sunk two sewer lines on either side of the Creek between Delmont and Hillmont.  All the street storm drains were configured to also dump into Chimes Creek down an easement along the side of 6391 Hillmont and the property across from it on Delmont.

After the first incident in 1986, the sewage lines continued to rupture periodically and dump raw sewage into the creek. I would get phone calls about discoloration and foul odors coming from the creek. Public Works would come up once or twice every winter.

In the winter of 1988, there was a major break in the sewer line behind 6311 Hillmont Drive and wash out of nine feet of land and fencing at 6301 Hillmont Drive . The City’s Public Works Agency came and attempted to fix the problem by tying the sewer pipe to an oak tree, but this caused further erosion.  Since that time, the City has come out every year to repair the same break; land continues to be lost, and the sewer line is still tied to the oak tree.  On December 14, 1999, the City sent letters to neighbors of Chimes Creek stating that the City was going to rehabilitate the sanitary sewers above Nairobi Place .  To date the City has not performed this work.

Nancy Sidebotham