Calaveras Dam Replacement

UPDATE - JANUARY 2011

CALAVERAS DAM PROJECT REVISED, FUTURE OPERATIONS COULD HELP RESTORE ALAMEDA CREEK

The final Environmental Impact Report for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission project to replace Calaveras Dam in the upper Alameda Creek watershed was released in January 2011, and revisions to the project will benefit restoration of threatened steelhead trout. The SFPUC has changed dam operations, will construct a fish ladder and fish screens on a diversion dam, is initiating a habitat management plan and will providing more water flow in Alameda Creek.

Read the January 25, 2011 press release by the Alameda Creek Alliance.

The SFPUC has committed to providing year-round water releases into Alameda Creek from Calaveras Reservoir ranging from 5 to 12 cubic feet per second, depending on the time of year and water-year type (wet, normal or dry). Particularly important will be cold-water flow releases during summer months to improve water quality and rearing conditions for trout. The SFPUC will modify operation of a 32-foot diversion dam in upper Alameda Creek, reducing its water diversion capacity by more than 40 percent, closing the diversion gates for more of the year to allow unimpaired natural flow to continue downstream, and ensuring minimum flows of 30 cubic feet per second past the dam during winter and spring.

The SFPUC will also construct a fish ladder around the diversion dam and investigate fish passage improvements downstream to help adult steelhead migrate into the headwaters of Alameda Creek, the best trout habitat in the watershed below major dams. The SFPUC will install a fish screen on the diversion dam and improve screens in the reservoir to prevent small juvenile trout from being diverted or trapped during water operations. The SFPUC also announced a management plan to monitor stream flows and improve habitat conditions, with a stated goal of restoring a self-sustaining steelhead population in the watershed.

However, the SFPUC continues to pursue a Sunol Valley water diversion project, the Upper Alameda Creek Filter Gallery Project, that would recapture an unspecified amount of stream flow releases from upstream dams and this could interfere with steelhead migration.

2009 Comments on the Environmental Impact Report

Comment letter from Alameda Creek Alliance and Center for Biological Diversity

Comment letter from 46 other Bay Area conservation groups

Comment letter from Lippe, Gaffney, Wagner on inadequacy of CEQA analysis

Comment letter from fisheries biologist Kevan Urquhart

Comment letter from Alameda County Water District

Comment letter from National Marine Fisheries Service

Comment letter from California Department of Fish and Game

Comment letter from Regional Water Quality Control Board

Comment letter from California-Nevada Chapter of the American Fisheries Society

Comment letter from East Bay Regional Park District

CALAVERAS PROJECT IN THE NEWS

KPIX Channel 5 News Story - October 6, 2009
Studies Released in Replacing Calaveras Dam

San Jose Mercury News - October 2, 2009
Large new dam construction steaming ahead in Santa Clara and Alameda County

December 7, 2005 article in the East Bay Express

Read the Alameda Creek Alliance press releases about the project:

46 Bay Area Conservation Groups Air Concerns over Calaveras Dam Project in Alameda Creek - December 14, 2009

San Francisco Rushing Environmental Review for Calaveras Dam Project - November 2, 2009

San Francisco Releases Flawed Draft EIR for Calaveras Dam Replacement Project on Alameda Creek - October 7, 2009

San Francisco Rebuked Over Steelhead Trout Consideration for Calaveras Dam Rebuild - April 17, 2008

CALAVERAS DAM PROJECT EIR DOCUMENTS

Notice of Availability

Download the EIR (1,600 pages!) here or here

Current Calaveras Dam

View the SFPUC web page about the Calaveras Dam project

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

SFPUC memo regarding proposed instream flows for Calaveras Dam Project - March 2009

Calaveras Dam Project Fisheries Technical Report - August 2008

NMFS April 2008 letter stating consultation will be required on a federal permit for the project

ACA scoping comments on the project - November 2005

California Department of Fish and Game comments - November 2005

SFPUC's Calaveras Dam Conceptual Engineering Report

History of Calaveras Dam

In 2006 the SFPUC adopted the Water Enterprise Environmental Stewardship Policy, which provides direction for management of SFPUC-owned lands and natural resources affected by operation of the SFPUC water system. The policy commits the SFPUC to operating the SFPUC water system in a manner that protects and restores native fish and wildlife downstream of SFPUC dams and water diversions, within SFPUC reservoirs, and on SFPUC watershed lands. Unfortunately, the consideration of environmental impacts of Calaveras Dam project in the Programmatic EIR for the SFPUC's water system improvements was completely inadequate.