BRENTWOOD — A $914 million plan to expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir as drought insurance for millions of Bay Area residents picked up endorsements Monday from six conservation groups in a rare display of environmental support for new water development.
Environmental groups are pleased because the project would provide large amounts of water for Central Valley wetlands, habitat for ducks, geese and other wildlife, in addition to storing water for people and farms.
“As a coalition, we consider these wildlife refuge benefits to be critically important,” the Nature Conservancy, Audubon California, and four other groups wrote to the California Water Commission. “The problem is so significant that some refuges … are left virtually dry in drought years.”
The environmental coalition urged the state commission to look favorably on a request for $434 million in voter-approved state bond money to expand the reservoir southeast of Brentwood.
A coalition of 12 water agencies are cooperatively planning to raise the Los Vaqueros earthen dam by 55 feet, increasing its storage capacity from 160,000 acre feet to 275,000-acre feet, enough water to meet the annual needs of 1.4 million people.
The Contra Costa Water District, owner of Los Vaqueros, is coordinating the grant application. Other partnering agencies include the Santa Clara Valley Water District, East Bay Municipal Utility District, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Alameda County Zone 7 Water District, Alameda County Water District and Grassland Water District. The latter manages wildlife refuges near Los Banos in Merced County.
Meanwhile, further studies on the expansion have raised its tentative price tag to $914 million, up from a previous estimate of some $800 million, the Contra Costa Water District reported Monday in submitting its grant application.
An expanded Los Vaqueros Reservoir would provide 46,000 acre feet of water annually on average for Central Valley refuges, the six environmental groups said.
Only five percent of the Central Valley’s wetlands remain because most were drained, diked, developed, plowed over and built on, the groups wrote.
The letter signers also include the Planning and Conservation League, California Waterfowl Association, Defenders of Wildlife, and Point Blue Conservation Science.
The proposed reservoir expansion project calls for a new pipeline enabling Contra Costa Water District to ship Delta water to the state’s Bethany Reservoir, where it could be moved south of the Delta to wildlife refuges.
“The potential expansion of Los Vaqueros into a regional facility presents a significant opportunity for our customers, the environment and local agency partners,” said Lisa Borba, the Contra Costa Water District Board president.
The California Water Commission is scheduled in June 2018 to decided on grants from state Proposition 1, passed by voters in 2014. If funded, the Los Vaqueros expansion could begin in 2022 and finish in 2026 or 2027.
