Alviso Slough

This morning’s big item was the resolution to “Set Public Hearing and Issue Draft Engineer’s Report and Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for Public Review and Comment Regarding Alviso Slough Restoration Project.” Said reports are available here, but, be warned. They are massive. Paper copies are also available for public review at the Alviso branch of the San José Public Library, as well as the King main library and the District headquarters.

About 15 people spoke in favor of the project, all of them from or connected with Alviso in some way. This despite the fact that the Board today only took action, as I said above, to set the public hearing and issue the draft reports. The public hearing is set for 16 July at 7:00 pm at George Mayne Elementary School in Alviso.

The District staff considered six project alternatives, from doing nothing (which is always a required option) to the big project that the people from Alviso had in mind when they spoke in favor of going ahead. This option is known as alternative 5 in the reports.

The proposed Project Alternative 5, shown in Figure ES-1, would include vegetation and root mass removal to a depth of 4 feet over 15.3 acres, and additional dredging over 9.7 acres to a 10 foot depth, for a total project footprint of 25 acres between the Gold Street Bridge and the Alviso County Marina. This work would result in an open-water channel width and depth that would replicate slough conditions of the early 1980s along a 0.6 mile length of slough.

Alternative 5 would widen and deepen the slough channel to allow two-way boat traffic between the Gold Street Bridge and the existing Alviso County Marina. Vegetation and root mass removal to 4 feet would not significantly alter the depth of the slough in the Project Area over the 15.3 acres of proposed such work, as only the root mass and the small amount of sediment
attached to the roots would be removed. The 9.7 acres of dredged area would show significant improvement in depth.

…

The proposed project would be financed by the Watershed and Stream Stewardship Fund. Based on recent fiscal analysis, expending $22.2 million for the capital investment of the staff- recommended alternative would cause the fund balance to dip below the level set by the Board’s reserve policy. In order to maintain the necessary reserves, reprioritization of currently-approved capital projects would be required.

For long-term maintenance of the completed project, approximately $3.6M would have to be set aside annually from property tax revenues to fund ongoing removal of re-emerging vegetation and periodic dredging of the slough channel to maintain post-project conditions. This is a conservative estimate; if the proposed Pond A8 Phase 1 Action is implemented and operated successfully, the long-term maintenance costs for the Alviso Slough Restoration Project would be reduced. The current annual property tax revenues closely match the existing annual operations and maintenance program in all the watersheds of the county; thus, some programs would be curtailed, and others permanently cut, to set aside the necessary monies for post-project O&M work.

So this large project would come at the expense of other projects, as would the ongoing cost of maintaining it.

It’s too early for me to say what I think about it, but I do hope that people unconnected with Alviso will also take the time to make their feelings known.