CELSOC Engineering Excellence Merit Award
The district was one of three honorees bestowed with the Engineering Excellence Merit Award by the Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California for its work on a flood protection project for residents in south Palo Alto.

The design consultant and the city of Palo Alto were also recipients for their contributions to the Matadero Creek Remediation Project, completed in 2004.

Improvements include replacement of the Louis Road bridge, heightened floodwalls between Alma Street and West Bayshore Road, an overflow bypass channel downstream of Highway 101 and extensive planting of native vegetation in the Baylands.

The district managed and funded the project, which will expedite the removal of several hundred properties from the 1 percent (100-year) flood plain and will no longer subject them to mandatory flood insurance requirements or special building restrictions.