Photograph by Paul Myers

Bob Wallace stands by the dam in question, a 12-foot-high structure on Calabazas Creek near Foothill Lane that was once used to hold back debris from a local quarry.




Dam debate: Neighbors dispute creek wall

By Oakley Brooks

Bob Wallace would really like to see the Comer Drive Debris Basin dam go. He'd like the silt and gravel behind it to go as well, and Calabazas Creek's channel restored to some semblance of its natural state. Then, he and his dogs and the deer that frequent the area could run free on the long stretch of creek around the Comer bridge.

"The thing is obsolete," Wallace says, pointing to a dam just upstream from his Foothill Lane home. "I was going to offer to blow it up by putting a stick of dynamite in each weep hole."

Larry Clifford would like to see the concrete go, as well. He's just worried a chunk of his property, which overlooks the dam, will go along with the dam. And he's not so sure the Santa Clara Valley Water District will take care of his property when the dam goes.

"I don't trust them," says Clifford.

And there's the rub, or the flow, on water district plans to remove the dam and regrade the creek bed, plans that inching closer to reality despite a handful of nervous residents.

Both the district board director for the area, Greg Zlotnick, and the Saratoga City Council favor removing the dam. And the district is proceeding with a full environmental assessment of dam removal-the entire project is estimated to cost the water agency between $590,000 and $1.25 million, depending on how much work will be done.

The district's push to take out the wall and regrade the stream bed come as part of a new effort by the flood and water protection agency to make environmental restoration a priority. As Zlotnick says, "The water district of today is not the water district of 30 years ago," when concrete channels were the favored end state of creeks.

The agency's attempts to broaden its mission have been undertaken in part to win public support, Zlotnick says.

But green-minded South Bay residents only love a restored creek if it doesn't cut into their backyards.

"They want all the natural amenities of a creek, but they get upset when the run of the creek affects their property lines," Zlotnick said. "You can't have your cake and eat it, too."

Most everyone involved agrees the debris basin dam's time has passed.

Constructed in 1973, the dam was used to control the flow of gravel and sediment from the upstream Cocciardi Quarry. The water district trapped much of the debris in Saratoga and then annually scooped it from the area by backhoe and used it for fill elsewhere in the county. That basin theoretically prevented extra deposits and subsequent flooding in the low-lying areas of Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose, where the Calabazas flows into San Francisco Bay. The district still ended up having to dredge out low-lying areas near the Bay.

The quarry above Saratoga is now closed and the district stopped dredging in Saratoga some five years ago.

But a layer of silt and gravel still sit behind the dam. And for years now Wallace and Councilman Stan Bogosian, among others, have pushed for a final regrading of the creek bed and the dam's removal. Advocates say that would not only restore a more natural feel to the area, it would reduce the flood threat to the Comer Drive bridge, which hovers just 4 feet off the built-up bed of the Calabazas.

Conservation groups and agencies in the area are supportive of dam removal and channel restoration, although there is little chance that Calabazas will return to being the all-year trout stream it was in the early 1900s. Teresa Nemeth, the regional chairwoman with the Sierra Club, says the water table has fallen too much in the area for Calabazas to be anything but a seasonal stream.

But conservationists say the project could have a positive impact on flood control. They say that, through the years, piecemeal bank protection efforts--bulwarks and rock reinforcements--have actually created further erosion by redirecting the stream's flow to unprotected banks. A properly built channel would direct energy toward the center of the creek.

"The Guadalupe-Coyote Resource Conservation District ... fully supports the efforts by Mr. Wallace and other Saratoga residents to get the dam removed and restore the creek's natural functions before more serious erosion and flooding occurs," Gary Molle, president of the resource district board, wrote in a recent letter to Saratoga officials.

The water district's own initial engineering study has indicated that dam removal would not contribute substantially to more erosion in the area. But district Watershed Manager Jenny Micko--expecting some erosion regardless of the dam's fate--adds that her agency is not in the business of protecting properties where houses are not in jeopardy.

"It's not high on our priority list to promote bank protection in the area, because there are no houses threatened," says Micko. "If we responded to all people's worries about bank protection and put in hardscape, then you lose a lot of the natural value."

It's the natural erosion, however, that homeowners are worried about. The Ting family owns property just below the dam, at a sharp bend in creek. Three years ago, a flood left one of the Ting's sheds dangling precariously at the edge of a newly formed cliff. Patty Ting, who lives with her parents at the property, says they found that bank restoration would cost around $90,000.

The bank along Larry Clifford's property and others is lined with rock and concrete reinforcements. But he says he'd like to see some more erosion control explored as part of the removal package.

"What if they miscalculate?" he says.

Clifford is also concerned about an oak tree that has grown in behind one of the dam's wing walls. Both he and Wallace would like to see the tree stay. Wallace has proposed to leave that wing wall in place and remove the rest of the dam.

Wallace says he's pleased that district officials are finally pushing ahead with an environmental review--he says he even offered to have locals charge money to watch his dynamite blasting to help raise money for the project.

"It's been a lot of us old cranks getting on them that's helped this," said Wallace.

Now, the district must find some resolution with residents who aren't so excited about the dam's removal.

Sheriff's Report

Commentary: He's kooky for Girl Scout cookies

Photo: Saratoga Education Foundation's annual Jog-a-Thon

Local Home Sales Listings

Obituary: Clare Einhorn

Saratoga Sampler

Sports Briefs

High school tennis

High school track & field

High school baseball

High school softball