Why storm debris removal is needed in Ripon
Ripon's storm debris arrives with a cloudburst rather than a river. A storm that began at five in the afternoon dropped two and a half inches on the city in two hours and overwhelmed the drains: manhole covers popped, cars stalled with water halfway up their doors, and wakes from passing traffic pushed water over lawns into garages and up to front doors. The worst points named were Acacia and Milgeo avenues, Canal Street east of Jack Tone Road, Doak Boulevard, Avenue A near Ripona School and Wilma Avenue at Fourth Street.
Ripon's oldest streets are bungalows, and their roofs are the oldest material a storm can lift. Development of about 1910 to 1920 lines Stockton, Walnut, Locust, Elm, Orange, Palm and Acacia south of Main, predominantly bungalow forms with some Mission Revival and Classical Revival cottages, and a 2009 survey of a portion of the older areas found signs of dilapidation or deterioration on 374 of its 644 parcels. CalRecycle's banned-from-the-trash list puts asbestos in some older cement, roofing, flooring and siding, so that material stops for an answer.
Part of industrial Ripon sits over a plume, and that changes what may be dug or moved. The South Stockton planning district covers 533 acres, 237 of them designated Heavy Industry, and the Water Board records that a former plant used trichloroethylene here from 1957 to 1970, with releases to soil and groundwater through an industrial wastewater pond and a suspected sewer leak near Stockton Avenue and Fourth Street; tetrachloroethylene has also been found downtown. Debris clearance stays on the surface, and anything that looks like a drum or a tank is set aside for a hazardous waste handler.
North Pointe puts orchards, food plants and truck yards on the same 310 acres. The plan area is bounded by Mistlin Sports Park, Fulton Avenue, the SR 99 frontage road and Jack Tone Road, and in 2015 it held almond orchards, food-processing plants, trucking yards, the Goodwin Business Park and highway commercial uses, with a regional detention basin at Mistlin serving about 1,000 acres. Orchard timber, plant roofing and yard fencing are three different loads, and a processing building is a facility under the federal asbestos definition, so any teardown routes the C&D debris to its own stream.
Everything hauled south out of Ripon crosses the river on one road. State Route 99 is the city's only direct access southward across the Stanislaus to Salida, Modesto and points south, and the City notes that the single crossing can be closed by emergencies; the freeway carries 139,000 vehicles a day at Jack Tone Road. A load that has to use it is sheeted at the property, because Vehicle Code section 23115 requires anything carried for disposal or recycling, ashes included, to be totally covered.
Almost a third of Ripon's homes, 1,577 of 5,057, were built between 2000 and 2009, the busiest decade in its record. Streets finished together lose the same fence line and the same young trees in one storm, and the sort repeats down the block.
Storm debris removal, as delivered in Ripon
Eleven road miles from the Modesto base, north on Highway 99 and off at Main Street or Jack Tone Road. The order is fixed: record the site, split the streams on the lot, ticket every run.
The request names the property, the event and the access: SR 99 and the Union Pacific split the city, and north-south movement funnels onto three overpasses. A site visit sets the volume. Same day or within 1 to 2 days, depending on urgency and availability. Morning or afternoon arrival windows, confirmed when the estimate is booked.
Photographs and video record the debris where the water or the wind left it, with the building behind it, and the receipts are kept in the same file. On a wildfire-destroyed structure nothing is touched until the owner has put the cleanup route in writing.
Lines are confirmed dead by the utility before any cutting, leaking tanks and gas services are shut, and a fire-damaged building is examined and found safe before entry.
Drums and cylinders wait for a hazardous waste handler, and the asbestos inspection and Valley air district notice come ahead of demolition.
The sort is done on the property: limbs and brush from the bungalow streets; orchard timber off the North Pointe edge; roofing, panel and insulation from the South Stockton plants; treated fence timber; street silt from the cloudburst; and burned material, wetted and wrapped.
Every run leaves the property covered, bound for a permitted facility that had agreed to take that stream.
What the owner keeps is the site photographed at both ends, a ticket for every gate naming type and destination, and any survey or notice the job called for.
Where storm debris removal is needed in Ripon
Ripon's twelve areas hand over different loads: bungalow canopy south of Main, plant roofing on South Stockton, orchard timber north, and river silt.
Downtown Main Street
The historic commercial core, with the two-story Riddle Building of 1884, the 1886 Odd Fellows building, the 1910 Bank of Ripon and the 1912 Markham Hotel. Old brick and old roofing come off together, and suspect material is set aside.
Stockton, Walnut, Locust, Elm, Orange, Palm and Acacia streets south of Main, and the depot area north of Main
Bungalow streets of about 1910 to 1920 south of Main, with Queen Anne and Italianate cottages near the depot to the north. Mature garden trees and century-old roofing are what a storm takes from these blocks.
South Stockton Avenue industrial district
533 acres including 237 designated Heavy Industry, with Diamond Pet Foods at 942 S. Stockton bounded by industry, SR 99 and the river. Plant roofing and racking come off in quantity, and drums or tanks are set aside.
Former paper mill by the Stanislaus River
A mill opened near the river in 1965 and closed permanently in 2009, having produced about 35,000 tons of paper a year. Sites of that age give structural steel, roofing and insulation, each separated before a truck is loaded.
Stanislaus River corridor and the Vera district
The river is the southern boundary and the city's only FEMA 100-year zone, with about 100 acres of floodplain isolated by levees and 630 acres of Resource Reserve kept out of development. Silt and river timber are cleared from the private side.
Jack Tone Road and the SR 99 highway service corridor
Travel plazas, fast-food restaurants, motels and trucking service and parking facilities around an interchange carrying 139,000 vehicles a day. Canopies and signage come down over hard standing, and the runoff goes to a detention pond.
North Pointe Specific Plan area
310 acres bounded by Mistlin Sports Park, Fulton Avenue, the SR 99 frontage road and Jack Tone Road, holding almond orchards, food plants, trucking yards and the Goodwin Business Park. Orchard timber and plant roofing come off the same plan area.
Ripona Planning District
146 acres including 42 designated Urban Core, built out south of Milgeo Road. In the October 2018 downpour two vehicles were stranded at Acacia and Milgeo avenues, and flood water closed off Avenue A near Ripona School.
Wilma Avenue and the North Wilma district
270 acres north of West Main Street, with a 53-acre high school site, a 20-acre elementary school site and 19 acres of community commercial. Crews barricaded Wilma at Fourth Street in 2018, and water reached front doors on the 600 block.
Doak Boulevard and the southern edge
The east-west road at the south boundary, a two-lane minor collector with a landscaped median from Mohler Road to Vera Avenue and turn lanes through the industrial districts. At least three storm manholes were forced out of it in 2018.
West Main Street and South Jack Tone district
437 acres bounded by West Main Street, the Stanislaus River, Robert Avenue and South Highland Road, with 266 acres of low density residential and 104 of commercial recreational. Fencing and landscape trees are the usual load.
2000s subdivisions
Chesapeake Landing, Brookline Estates, Montecito Estates, Palm Grove Estates, Poppy Hill Estates, Seven Oaks and Cornerstone I, part of the 1,577 homes built between 2000 and 2009. One fence detail runs the length of each.
Storm debris removal sub-services available in Ripon
Questions from Ripon property owners and managers
Silt, litter and whatever the wakes carried into garages and yards. In that storm manhole covers popped and cars stalled with water halfway up their doors, with the worst at Acacia and Milgeo avenues, Canal Street east of Jack Tone Road, Doak Boulevard and Wilma at Fourth Street. Mud and soaked material off private ground are photographed where they sit, lifted as a flood stream, and loaded apart from anything woody.
It keeps the clearance above ground. The Water Board records trichloroethylene released to soil and groundwater there through an industrial wastewater pond and a suspected sewer leak, with tetrachloroethylene also found downtown and a remediation the Board describes as around halfway through a 50 to 75-year program. Debris work lifts what is on the surface, disturbs no soil, and sets aside any drum, tank or container for a hazardous waste handler.
They go as vegetative material, bucked and chipped, and separately from everything else on the site. In 2015 the 310-acre plan area still held almond orchards alongside food plants, trucking yards and the Goodwin Business Park, and almonds remain the main farm use inside the city, with about 320 of its roughly 450 undeveloped acres farmland or orchard in 2016. Stumps are scoped as their own item rather than assumed.
Yes, and the distance makes no difference. The Vehicle Code requires a vehicle carrying ashes, refuse, trash or rubbish, or anything being transported for disposal or recycling, to have the load totally covered. In Ripon most southbound runs also use the one crossing of the Stanislaus on Highway 99, where 139,000 vehicles a day pass Jack Tone Road, so the sheeting goes on before the truck leaves the property.
Not for commercial debris, on FEMA's own account. Its Category A fact sheet says removal in clearly commercial areas remains the responsibility of the commercial entities and that it will not allow reimbursement, and it names apartments and condominiums in the same group. What an insurer will meet is a question for the policy and the adjuster, and the load tickets are what either of them can check against.
Covering the roof keeps the weather out; this takes the wreckage away. The first is storm damage and board-up, done while the building is still open. Once it is closed, everything on the ground becomes a sorting and hauling job, run stream by stream with a ticket each. Water that got inside before the cover went on is water damage restoration.
Storm debris removal near Ripon
