The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to announce this week $727 million in low-cost loans to fund critical water supply and flood control projects in Santa Clara County, including the rebuilding of Anderson Dam and flood protection work along Coyote Creek.
Valley Water is hosting a joint news conference with the EPA Thursday in Morgan Hill to announce the loan commitment through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. The federal loans are projected to save water district taxpayers $256 million.
Projects benefiting from the loans include the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project and the Coyote Creek Flood Protection Project. Officials said these projects provide environmental justice benefits, such as flood protection for disadvantaged communities and improved reliability of local water supply.
The press conference will be at the Anderson Dam, and will feature officials from Valley Water, the EPA, the state Water Resources Control Board, plus San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Morgan Hill Mayor Mark Turner, Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez and Assemblymember Gail Pellerin.
I remember this dam. This is the one over Morgan Hill near a fault line that our CA and local officials completely ignored for over 10 years. It was finally ordered drained by the feds after a study showed that if it broke it during an earthquake it could wash away a million lives. You’d think our government officials and elected leaders would have cared a little bit more about that risk. They didn’t and still don’t seem to.
All earthen dams have a limited lifespan. They eventually become saturated and can “liquefy” during an earthquake. This is just simple math and engineering, it has nothing to do with “environmental justice” and is not caused by climate change, politics, or finances.
But whatever, more propaganda.
Just FYI: the associated photo in this article is not of Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill, CA.
Quick search on Wikimedia: photo looks like it is from Anderson Ranch Dam in Idaho….
The photo is Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill. I’ve lived above the reservoir for 40 years and this is definitely Morgan Hill. Also these earthen dams don’t saturate and liquify over time. The base underneath could liquify in a 7+ magnitude quake and cause the center to slough up to 35′. If the dam was full at that time, which is quite rare, it could cause an overflow that could erode away the dam. None of the scenarios show it washing away 1 Million lives even if , flooding could affect that many or more people.
Misinformation is not in shortage in the comments though.
Pretty sure I said they become saturated and can liquify during an earthquake…..so ya, misinformation, or whatever….
And where in the world did you come up with 35′ ? You’re sure it couldn’t slough 36′ or 37′???
Thank you for revising the photo to show Anderson Dam in Morgan Hill, CA.
The original photo, which you may have missed, was revised after the comments from me and “Jae Abel”. No misinformation from us.
CA Governance Failure on full display. Over-regulation, waste and failure to maintain major population sustaining infrastructure – but just blame someone or something else like climate change and environmental justice. all of these officials should be embarrassed to even have a press conference to “celebrate” their failure.
Not just way over budget – way behind need by date and original schedule.
These public taxpayer funded projects are just “our” deep pockets for inexperienced politicians, unaccountable bureaucrats and contractors to fleece.
That state and SCVWD were warned of issues at Anderson as early as 2007.
The construction/completion schedule keeps slipping from 2015/2018 to 2024 to
now estimated at 2032.
Cost increases from $200 million to $400 million to $600 million – to $1.24 billion.
Anyone’s Guess on Final Cost and Completion Date?
An ‘amusing’ SCVWD 2012 info mailer (cost to print & mail on taxpayers)
shows how far off plan it is.
https://parks.sccgov.org/sites/g/files/exjcpb961/files/Anderson%20Dam%20FAQ%20Sheet_091312.pdf
Today:
Pre-construction ground breaking of a bigger drain tunnel was started July 2021.
Construction Projections are now 10 yrs completion in 2032 – while Anderson sits Empty in a new drought cycle and a good 2023 rain season.
Valley water website reports:
C1: Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit
Status: On Target …………..(just Laughable)
Schedule: Start FY 2014 / Finish FY 2032
Cost: $1.19 billion without inflation / $1.24 billion with inflation
The original photo shows up in the article search result thumbnails.
A while back the web editor used a photo of
Campbell High School in Litchfield, NH for a Campbell High School teacher article.
The comment section usually provides better, more fair unbiased information than these articles.
Journalism today is not worth much, nor is the degree – just an outlet for activists and advocates to push Bee-Ess agendas and division & discord between segments of the community and population
– like environmental justice.
College majors with the worst return on investment:
2022: Competition for the top journalism jobs is particularly fierce right now because the outlook for these jobs is somewhat discouraging.
The BLS expects jobs to decline by 11% for reporters and correspondents and 7% for editors.
18. Mass Media
Many mass media majors struggle to find jobs in their field and have the highest unemployment rate on this list, at 7.8 percent.
Median wage early career: $35,000
Median wage mid-career: $60,000
Unemployment rate: 7.8%
Underemployment rate: 55.2%
Share with graduate degree: 18.3%
Mass media is a broad major, students who enroll in a mass media major have a variety of career options to choose from, including public relations, media planning, advertising, and journalism.
7. Liberal Arts
Liberal arts majors have the 2nd highest unemployment rate on this list.
Median wage early career: $33,400
Median wage mid-career: $60,000
Unemployment rate: 6.7%
Underemployment rate: 58.4%
Share with graduate degree: 27.8%
A liberal arts major is characterized by its breadth of subjects, including the humanities, arts, sciences, and social sciences. With such a diverse curriculum, liberal arts majors can engage in a variety of careers like sales, marketing, business, journalism, and public relations are just a few examples of career paths.
Remember the Auburn Dam? The enviro lobby killed it in the ’80’s, after ≈$1 billion was spent building it. Now it’s just a big ugly hole in the ground.
The Auburn Dam would have created an immense, beautiful lake that both people and wildlife would have enjoyed and benefited from — and it would have almost doubled the water storage capacity for NorCal.
Everyone would be benefiting from that extra water right now, if the powers that be had listened to the folks living in the area. That’s something to think about when small, vocal groups with no skin in the game meddle in the lives of others…
…must… resist… temptation… bicycle lanes…
Funny how Smokey is able to speak for the wildlife, claiming that the wildlife would have enjoyed and benefited from the new reservoir (not lake) created by Auburn dam. Did Smokey take a poll of all the wildlife?
It’s a good thing that the Auburn Dam was never built. It would have ruined the most popular recreational river in all of California, while putting a lot of people downstream at risk of a massive flood.
I have to agree with SteveL here; there is a lot of misinformation in these comments left by a lot of seemingly angry people with too much time on their hands (maybe during commercial breaks during fox and friends?).
A lot of sarcasm and anger in the post SCC, do you get that from CNN or MSNBC?