East Palo Alto council considers engineering solutions for San Francisquito Creek flooding

by Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News September 5, 2025September 3, 2025

San Francisquito Creek flows beneath a bridge near Pope and Chaucer streets in Palo Alto in an undated Google Street View image. East Palo Alto received $600,000 in federal funding for a study of flood risks and potential solutions along the creek. (Google image)

The multi-jurisdictional authority charged with preventing San Francisquito Creek from overflowing onto city streets is aiming for a consensus on a flood control plan by the end of this year.

The San Francisquito Creek watershed encompasses approximately 45 square miles extending from the Santa Cruz Mountains to San Francisco Bay. The center of the creek lies on the boundaries of the five member cities and agencies of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority. They include the cities of East Palo Alto, Palo Alto and Menlo Park, as well as the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the San Mateo County Flood Control District, also known as One Shoreline.

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Ruth Dusseault, Bay City News

Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.

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