The first facility, the Bunting Pond Fish Screen, will prevent steelhead from being carried into ACWD’s diversion pipelines and adjacent groundwater recharge ponds at Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area. The second, the Rubber Dam Number Two Fish Passage Facility project, consisted of the decommissioning and removal of the dam and the creation of a notch in its concrete base to allow both upstream and downstream passage by steelhead.

Alameda Creek once supported runs of steelhead, and although early data is not available, accounts by locals indicate that steelhead numbering in the thousands once annually ascended its waterways. Steelhead fishing was common on the creek until about four decades ago. By the late 1950s, though, the California Department of Fish and Game had decided the steelhead run was no longer viable.

A series of floods in the 1950s prompted the channelization of the lower creek by the Army Corps of Engineers and by the early 1970s numerous fish passage barriers had been installed along the lower 12 miles of the creek that effectively closed the door on already dwindling anadromous fish runs. The last steelhead trout and coho salmon runs were seen in the lower creek in 1963 and 1964. Subsequent flood control and water supply projects in the creek did not allow for migratory fish passage.

In an effort to restore steelhead to the watershed, the Alameda Creek Fisheries Workgroup was created in 1999. The Workgroup consists of government and non-government stakeholders and was tasked with developing and implementing a strategy to restore steelhead to Alameda Creek. Over the past 11 years, the Workgroup has proposed dam removals, construction of fish ladders at in-stream barriers, installation of fish screens at water diversions, and habitat enhancements.

Several restoration projects have already been completed. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission removed Niles Dam and the Sunol Dam in Niles Canyon in 2006. In 2003, Zone 7 Water Agency constructed two fish ladders at the confluence of Arroyo Mocho and Arroyo Las Positas in Livermore. In 2001, the East Bay Regional Park District removed two swim dams from Alameda Creek in Sunol Regional Park. And in 2008, the Alameda County Water District installed four fish screens in the flood control channel near the Mission Boulevard overcrossing.

The most recently completed projects were ACWD’s Bunting Pond Fish Screen and the Rubber Dam Number Two Fish Passage Facility. The rubber dam project is notable in that it included the removal of the dam, an ACWD water supply facility. After careful deliberation, it was decided that the dam had reached the end of its useful life and that ACWD would be able to adequately supply its customers with water with its newer facilities.

ACWD is planning other fish passage improvements in Alameda Creek as well, including fish ladders at its remaining two rubber dams and additional fish screens at other water diversions. The goal of these improvements is to create a safe pathway through the flood control channel that will allow steelhead to access the upper watershed for spawning and rearing.

“These projects will improve fish migration in Alameda Creek, and are also an important part of the restoration and recovery of steelhead trout in the greater Bay Area,” said Jeff Miller, Director of the Alameda Creek Alliance. “The water district is to be commended for their leadership on restoring Alameda Creek.”

“Funding projects such as these can be quite challenging,” noted Walt Wadlow, ACWD General Manager at the dedication ceremony today. He went on to say, however, that ACWD was fortunate to receive $500,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for the removal of the rubber dam and a $600,000 grant through Proposition 50 for the Bunting Fish Screen Project.

Total cost for the fabrication and construction of the Bunting Pond Fish Screen was approximately $1.2 million. Total cost for the decommissioning of the rubber dam and the notching of the concrete base was approximately $1.1 million.
Speaking at today’s ceremony were ACWD General Manager Walt Wadlow, ACWD Board President Marty Koller, Katie Tague from Senator Ellen Corbett’s office, Chief of Staff of Supervisor Haggerty’s office Chris Gray, and Alameda Creek Alliance Chairman Jeff Miller.

Contact:
Frank Jahn
510-668-4209