Calaveras Dam Replacement

The SFPUC intends to replace Calaveras Dam, due to siesmic instability of the current dam. The dam will be rebuilt from 2011-2014, just downstream of its current location on Calaveras Creek, at the same size and storage capacity, with a core that would allow for building a larger dam at some point in the future.

Current Calaveras Dam:

View the SFPUC information about the Calaveras Dam replacement project.

San Francisco began the environmental review process for the Calaveras Dam replacement in October of 2005. The ACA and 70 other conservation and fishing groups are insisting that this major infrastructure project include adequate water releases from the reservoir to restore steelhead trout below the dam and removal of the Alameda Diversion Dam, which diverts upper Alameda Creek flows into Calaveras. Disappointingly, the programmatic EIR for the SFPUC's water system improvement projects proposed an approach to fisheries issues that would preclude restoration of steelhead to the creek. As the currently proposed project includes operation of the dam without sufficient stream flow releases downstream and inappropriate operation of the Alameda Diversion Dam, the ACA has serious concerns about the project at this time.

ACA press release about the project

ACA scoping comments on the project

California Department of Fish and Game comments

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

December 7, 2005 article in the East Bay Express

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 draft Programmatic EIR for the SFPUC's water system improvements is completely inadequate.

The San Francisco Planning Department is preparing an environmental impact report (EIR) for the SFPUC Calaveras Dam Replacement Project, due out sometime in 2009. The purpose of the EIR is to provide information about potentially significant environmental effects of the proposed project, to identify possible ways to minimize those potentially significant effects, and to describe and evaluate feasible alternatives to the proposed project. The draft Programmatic EIR was completely inadequate in its analysis of the Calaveras Dam project.

The ACA has the following problems with the project:

- The dam replacement project is proposed and described purely as an engineering project, without a restoration component. The existing dam is operated in violation of state environmental laws and the rebuilt dam will continue to impact migratory and resident fish downstream of the dam. The SFPUC cannot undertake a major infrastructure project like this without including adequate restoration measures.

- The project needs to include minimum water releases from Calaveras adequate to support all native fish downstream, including steelhead trout. The 6,300 acre-feet of water mentioned in the project description is misleading and was intended for enhancing limited habitat for resident trout, not for migratory fish. The actual amount of water SFPUC would release would be much lower, as the proposed project would allow natural stream flow to meet most of this flow requirement.

- The project needs to include removal or re-operation of the Alameda Diversion Dam, which diverts most of the flows of upper Alameda Creek and blocks fish migration.

- If feasible, the project should include fish passage for migratory fish past Calaveras Dam as well as restore ecosystem function (such as sediment transport) below the dam.

- The project needs comprehensive surveys for endangered and threatened species around the construction sites. Numerous listed species, such as red-legged and yellow-legged frog, tiger salamander, and Alameda whipsnake live around the reservoir.

- The proposed construction roads and borrow and disposal areas for dirt fill need to avoid habitat for listed and sensitive species.

- The project must include facilities that allow for stream restoration downstream, including release of the full range of needed stream flows and downstream transport of spawning gravels; adequate fish screens should also be installed at water intakes to protect reservoir fish.

What you can do:

Write a letter to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission stating that the Calaveras Dam Replacement project should include adequate flows for steelhead trout, provide fish passage, and change the operation of the Alameda Diversion Dam. Write to:

San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
1155 Market Street, 11th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

Ed Harrington, General Manager
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
1155 Market Street, 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103

Some good news for reservoir fish:

A SFPUC project in the Calaveras Reservoir in 2006 installed an oxygenation system that is improving water quality and habitat for resident fish by replenishing the water’s depleted levels of dissolved oxygen and limiting the negative effects of algal blooms.