Steve Margheim, Special to the Town Crier
Eric Millar of Los Altos points to erosion in Adobe Creek, located behind his home on Cypress Drive. About 10 years ago, Eric and Pat Millar, among other neighbors, fought for an "environmentally sound" solution, something other than the green concrete creek bed proposed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. The neighbors got their way, but now the creek reinforcement to next to Millar is getting weaker with each heavy rain. He has put in chicken wire to shore it up, but he says officials have been unresponsive to a long-term solution.
Special to the Town Crier
Questions loom about flood control options for residents
So far, it's been a cold, but fairly dry winter, so the recent weather hasn't exactly inspired Los Altos-area residents to go shopping for sand bags.
However, flood protection and stream maintenance has become a larger issue locally as development increases.
For the past 14 years, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been responsible for stream maintenance programs in the lower Peninsula under a voter-approved benefit assessment.
That assessment will expire in 2000, giving residents an opportunity to decide whether to continue those programs and the flood protection they provide.
The district is divided into zones, said George Fowler, district project manager for developing future funding scenarios for the flood management program. The cities of Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View and Palo Alto are in the Northwest Zone, which includes the Permanente, Adobe and San Fransisquito creeks, and Matedaro and Stevens Creek water sheds.
Under the current program, Fowler said, the water district provides services such as sediment removal, erosion and storm damage repair, and emergency response functions. Services also include vegetation and weed abatement, land development and permit review, and providing flood information and hydrologic data.
The issues are complex, said Los Altos resident Libby Lucas. Lucas has served on the Resource Conservation District for the northern corridor and observes the Santa Clara Valley Water District for the League of Women Voters.
"You can't consider communities in isolation," Lucas said. "Building in Los Altos Hills affects sediment that builds up in Palo Alto. Sediment in the creeks leads to the creation of a delta and back up at the bay, creating flood potential. Each creek is different."
People living along Adobe Creek between Foothill Expressway and Edith Avenue in Los Altos and Los Altos Hills - an area the district designated Reach 5 - are acutely aware of flooding and erosion problems.
Abby Ahrens lives in a home built up off the ground to prevent its being flooded. Even so, she said, "For two nights last year I couldn't get home because of the water."
"We've had problems for decades," said Bonnie McQuiston. She and her husband Ed moved into their Leaf Court home 27 years ago.
"As the water comes down (Adobe Creek) it washes away our property," she said. "We've lost 100-year-old oaks because the roots were undermined."
"They have done decades of studies, but nothing has been done," Ed McQuiston said.
Pat Millar and her neighbors did battle with the water district a decade ago over problems that began when the Edith Avenue bridge over Adobe Creek was replaced. The district proposed a concrete solution to erosion control under the bridge.
Years of development and policy changes have led to the problems the Adobe Creek residents and the water district are grappling with today.
In the Santa Clara Valley's agrarian past, slow-moving rivers allowed time for water to percolate into the ground and eroded the soil less. Vegetation along the banks acted like a sponge, helping to prevent flash-flooding downstream. With less paving, there was more absorption of water into the ground.
"The problem, beginning in the 1920s and 1930s, is that parcel owners on the creeks reclaimed land and put up retaining walls," said Los Altos Hills Councilwoman Elayne Dauber, the town's representative to the Santa Clara Valley Water Commission and the district's Northwest Flood Control Advisory Board. "Now the channels are too small."
Concrete solutions were in vogue in the 1960s, Fowler said, and they eliminated vegetation from creek beds.
With the environmental movement, Fowler and Dauber said, the climate changed again in the 1970s.
"Regulatory changes require more testing," Fowler said, "and the community is calling for habitat protection. That affects how we design capital projects to minimize impacts. It's good, but it costs more."
"Since the 1970s, the biggest problem is finding a solution that pleases everyone," Dauber said.
For the water district, that means satisfying homeowners, environmentalists, local jurisdictions and myriad federal agencies. And that affects resolution to problems along Adobe Creek.
After years of effort, a plan was approved two years ago for Reach 5 of Adobe Creek and funding was approved, said Marge Bruno, a former Los Altos mayor who lives on the Los Altos side of Adobe Creek.
"Finally the district had all the approvals, but they still didn't do all the work because Adobe had been declared a potential habitat for the red-legged frog," Bruno said. "No one has ever seen a red-legged frog on Adobe Creek. But now they are tied up and can't do the work. Meantime, the erosion continues."
"They've got a whole stack of people sitting on top of them," said Ed McQuiston in defense of the water district.
The result of delays, said Bruno, "is that people along the creek take matters into their own hands," erecting their own wooden barriers to erosion.
"If they do a good job, it affects people downstream," she said. "If they do a slapdash job, it looks bad. In a heavy rain year, water can wash out the boards, which then wash down and block the creek."
Bruce Bane, Los Altos' director of public works, has represented the city on the Northwest Flood Control Advisory Board for 20 years. He said ownership issues can muddy stream maintenance matters. "Sometimes the water district has an easement to the creek and owns the creek," he said. "Other times the homeowner owns the creek. Then the district can't spend tax dollars where no public interest exists."
"Cities must have an ordinance prohibiting building in the flood plain," Bane said. "The problem is what's been built years ago."
Fowler is busy setting up meetings with officials in cities within the water district, and organizing workshops for resident education and input.
The district has a current operating budget of $8.9 million for maintenance work in the Northwest Zone. Of that, $5.8 million comes from the benefit assessment. The rest comes from the district's share in county property tax assessments. That funding will continue regardless of the future of the benefit assessment, Fowler said.
The benefit assessment is based on land use and parcel size, he said. Businesses pay more than homeowners because they create more run-off.
Currently residents pay about $61.50 per year," Fowler said. If the assessment is not extended beyond 2000, that amount will be reduced to $21 per year to cover debt service.
A decline in revenues would mean a reduction in service, Fowler said. "Our first focus would be on maintaining the already constructed facilities." The water district is developing a program to take to voters in November 1999 at the earliest, Fowler said.
Proposition 218 stipulates that benefit assessments are no longer permitted, he said. "We are now exploring a parcel tax."
Lucas urged voters to become familiar with the complex issues involved.
"The Northwest Zone has been very intelligent in the past," she said.
"You have to be constantly vigilant," she said. "You don't want to give the district a blank check, but they do need adequate resources."
For more information, call the Santa Clara Valley Water District at (408) 265-2600 or visit its Web site at www.scvwd.dst.ca.us.