MORGAN HILL
– Lands in Henry Coe State Park won’t be flooded by an expanded
reservoir or other potential solutions to a water quality and
supply problem the county’s water agency is exploring, agency
officials said Tuesday.
Leaders of the Santa Clara Valley Water District have decided
any solution to the so-called
”
low point
”
problem at San Luis Reservoir will not inundate Coe lands or
create adverse impacts to the park, a district spokesman said
– although expansion of a reservoir near the park is not
completely out of the question.
MORGAN HILL – Lands in Henry Coe State Park won’t be flooded by an expanded reservoir or other potential solutions to a water quality and supply problem the county’s water agency is exploring, agency officials said Tuesday.
Leaders of the Santa Clara Valley Water District have decided any solution to the so-called “low point” problem at San Luis Reservoir will not inundate Coe lands or create adverse impacts to the park, a district spokesman said – although expansion of a reservoir near the park is not completely out of the question.
Officials said district board members unanimously affirmed a conclusion by the district’s chief executive that a reservoir encroaching on the park would be incompatible with district interests and state law.
“We’ve concluded there are several alternatives we can work with without affecting the park,” said Sig Sanchez, the district board’s chairman and formerly a Gilroy mayor and Santa Clara County supervisor. “We have other alternatives we will look at with the full intent of not disrupting the park’s operations.”
Citizens who organized as the Advocates for Coe Park to oppose potential intrusion on Coe were cautious with their responses Tuesday.
“I’m very mistrustful, I guess you might say, at this news,” said Teddy Goodrich, a Gilroy resident and longtime Coe volunteer who serves as the park’s historian. “I would rejoice if they didn’t build the dam at all.”
A new reservoir near the 86,000-acre park or expansion of an existing one were two of several preliminary concepts floated in a multi-million dollar, state-funded study by the water district, which is looking to sidestep an algae problem that can render water from the huge San Luis Reservoir off state Highway 152 relatively unusable here.
District officials say the algae degrades water quality and prevents the district from using its full supply of Sacramento-San Joaquin delta water from the huge reservoir.
But activists bristled at reservoir concepts that could back waters into the park, arguing they would not only circumvent the purpose of state parks in the first place by violating protected boundaries, but would also change and destroy the character of a scarce, unspoiled wilderness.
They said a proposed “Los Osos” dam upstream of Coyote Reservoir could flood four miles of Coyote Creek within the park – including the “Hunting Hollow” entrance area that’s popular with equestrians, mountain bikers and families – and limit access to the historic Gilroy Hot Springs.
Another proposal to enlarge the Pacheco Reservoir could back water up as much as 2.5 miles into the park, they said.
However, after a legal opinion and further analysis, water district officials said creating a storage facility that uses Coe land would require changing the park’s designation from a “state park” to a “state recreation area,” which would allow boaters, fishermen and other recreational enthusiasts to ply the waters of a reservoir meant for drinking water.
“That’s not the way we’d want a drinking water reservoir to be designated,” district spokesman Marty Grimes said.
A preliminary list of options that may be considered in an upcoming environmental impact report on the so-called San Luis Low Point Improvement Project include removing the algae with chemical or harvesting methods, lowering the reservoir’s existing intake facilities or bypassing the reservoir entirely with a pipeline.
A combination approach could also involve several of the options, including possible changes in operations at the local Anderson reservoir as well as other regional facilities.
“We’re not talking about raising Anderson Reservoir – that was screened out” of the study, Grimes said. “It’s utilizing existing storage space in a different way.”
Officials said they haven’t looked at the combination options in enough detail to determine whether any existing recreational policies at Anderson would be altered.
Changes to the Pacheco reservoir could also remain on the preliminary study list if they can be designed to not create adverse impacts to Coe, Grimes said. The Los Osos dam concept has been taken off the table, he said.
A district spokesman said the board did not take action on proposed water rate increases Tuesday, but expect to in early June.
