Plans to rebuild and expand Los Vaqueros Reservoir in eastern Contra Costa County face a critical vote by Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) ratepayers on March 2, 2004. An enlarged reservoir would serve as a regional surface water storage facility intended to improve drought supplies and drinking water quality in the Bay Area and enhance the Delta environment. If Measure N is approved, the water district and CALFED can move ahead with environmental studies and partnership negotiations. If voters reject Measure N, CCWD would not support an expansion and the project would effectively be stopped.
For the average CCWD customer, the regional and statewide perspective on water pumping, storage and distribution may not seem very important. However, this very local decision could have impacts for several other water districts, the long-term state water storage picture, and for the Delta environment.
In 1988, CCWD ratepayers approved a bond to construct the Los Vaqueros Reservoir to improve water quality and provide emergency storage for CCWD customers. At the time of construction, other Bay Area water agencies decided not to participate in building and using the reservoir. Currently, Los Vaqueros is capable of storing 100,000 acre-feet of water. It is used primarily for storing water drawn from the Delta intake during heavy flow periods when water quality is high and then released into the CCWD system during dry months when water quality at the intake suffers from seawater intrusion.
When the consortium of agencies known as CALFED issued its Record of Decision in 2000, additional surface storage was identified as a major need for the state, and Los Vaqueros was named as one of several potential storage sites. Under the preliminary planning scenarios developed by CALFED and CCWD, Los Vaqueros could be rebuilt to store 300,000_500,000 acre feet of water.
The larger reservoir would continue to provide storage for CCWD's needs, and could also store water for CALFED's Environmental Water Account and for other Bay Area water districts, which would be partners in the expansion. Potential partners in the project include Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD), Alameda County Water District, and Zone 7 Water Agency in eastern Alameda County, as well as state and federal resource agencies managing water for the environment. So far no agencies have formally agreed to participate in an expansion project, although many are participating in the studies. If the expansion project goes forward, the partners would reimburse CCWD for any existing facilities that would be removed or replaced, and for their share of new facilities.
Potential partners will be looking at their costs to participate and the benefits they would receive. For example, SCVWD now draws water from the State Water Project at Clifton Court Forebay in the Delta, but these pumps must reduce operations at certain times of the year to protect fish nearby. More flexible pumping times could provide higher water quality for SCVWD and major environmental benefits to the Delta and the Bay. By linking Los Vaqueros to the aqueduct supplying the district, SCVWD could take water at non-critical times for fish and when water quality is better, store it and then use it when the pumps are not operating.
Both CCWD and CALFED want assurance that voters will back the project before finishing extensive, and expensive, environmental studies to fill out details of the planning studies which have been completed. However, they have come under fire from environmental groups which are reluctant to write a "blank check" without seeing those detailed studies. Critics also say that there are no points later in the process for voters or others to say, "Stop" to CCWD, although the agencies point to permits and approvals that will be needed from state and federal agencies and elected water agency boards, and say that critics will have multiple opportunities to influence the process before any final decision is made on construction of the project.
The 1988 CCWD ballot measure contained a commitment by CCWD directors that Los Vaqueros could not be used to send additional water to Southern California or operated as part of any peripheral canal. Before starting the joint planning process for reservoir expansion, CCWD directors reaffirmed this commitment and also adopted a list of conditions for any expansion plans, including expanded recreational facilities, improved habitat protection for Delta fish and terrestrial species near the reservoir, continued control and operation of the watershed and reservoir by CCWD, and no additional cost to ratepayers. The CCWD conditions were included in the CALFED Record of Decision as requirements for CALFED participation in the reservoir expansion. If voters approve Measure N, the criteria are the guarantee to CCWD ratepayers that any future agreements to expand the reservoir will protect the Delta and the investment CCWD has already made.
Opponents dismiss these conditions as flimsy protection. Former State Senator John Nejedly, a leader of the "No on N" campaign, argues that, with pipelines in place from a Delta intake and pumping stations and pipelines available to take water from Los Vaqueros to partner districts, exports to Southern California could be made later by other districts even if CCWD honors its commitment not to export CCWD water. Dennis Oliver of California Alliance for Jobs, which is supporting Measure N, responds, "The conditions in the advisory vote [Measure N] are legally binding. The opponents are being disingenuous." In fact, US Fish & Wildlife requirements and water rights permits would also stand in the way of sending additional water south.
Another criticism comes from Steve Fiala of the East Bay Area Trails Council, a group of trails advocates, who have criticized the water district for failing to provide the levels of recreation promised in the bond measure for the current reservoir. Fiala complains that existing trails are mostly gravel service roads which are limited to hikers, and says the expansion will not provide more mixed-use trails for bicycles and horses.
Some organizations are concerned that expansion will make new water supplies available and encourage inappropriate growth, particularly in East Contra Costa and Alameda Counties, which still have open areas vulnerable to sprawl development. However, under the expansion proposal, water districts using the new storage facility would use it only for current entitlements, meaning that no new water would be available above the amount already planned and secured. Oliver says, "Building a facility to supply sprawl development is not what's being discussed. This facility is envisioned to address a different problem, which is that, given California's climate and water delivery systems, we need water at a time it's not there." CCWD officials say that growth is being accommodated through conservation and water recycling; although population in CCWD's service are has grown by 38% since 1988, water use has dropped from nearly 140,000 acre- feet in 1998 to 115,000 acre-feet in 2003. Despite the opposition from environmental groups, Oliver is optimistic that voters will see that "we're smarter now—we can use a storage facility to benefit the environment."
Voters in the CCWD service area may focus on only one issue, such as recreational facilities or concerns about removing and replacing some of the existing reservoir, and may not see the broader context for their decision. Whatever the outcome, however, it will affect the complicated California water picture well beyond central and eastern Contra Costa County.
Leslie Stewart
For more information:
CALFED studies: http://www.lvstudies.com
No on N: http://www.stopthedamwaste.com
Yes on N: http://www.cleanreliablewater.com