The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s fiscal year 2013-2014 budget includes about $13 million for the design of the Anderson Dam seismic retrofit project in Morgan Hill.
The dam, located on Cochrane Road in north Morgan Hill, will require a massive, $185-million upgrade project due to a number of reports from the district and other regulatory agencies in recent years that found it unfit to withstand a major earthquake on an active fault line about one mile away from the earthen structure.
Construction on the project likely won’t start until 2016, and until then, the retrofit will require a series of design efforts and environmental studies. When construction starts, it will likely continue for at least three years, as the project will require draining the reservoir, blasting areas around the reservoir to gather materials to strengthen the dam, and a re-routing of Cochrane Road through the area.
Water district staff are currently in the process of evaluating six different options to repair the dam – all of which will require draining Anderson Reservoir and the frequent movement of heavy equipment that will kick up dust.
The money allocated to the project’s design is part of the SCVWD’s $472 million 2013-2014 operating and capital budget, which the seven-member board of directors adopted May 14.
The district’s total budget is about 65 percent higher than the 2012-2013 budget – “an increase that is largely driven by an aggressive capital improvement program to rehabilitate the county’s aging infrastructure and projects to deliver clean, reliable water, maintain flood protection channels and provide stream stewardship,” according to a press release from SCVWD staff.
Funding for the remainder of the Anderson Dam retrofit project will come largely from the 2012 Measure B parcel tax which was approved by voters, according to SCVWD staff.
Since 2009, when an independent study found the dam might slump in a major nearby earthquake, Anderson reservoir has been maintained at least 25.5 feet below the crest of the spillway, which corresponds to about two-thirds of the reservoir’s capacity. State and federal regulators have also restricted the reservoir’s level since 2009.
At 1,200 acres, Anderson reservoir is the water district’s largest reservoir, and a popular site for boating and fishing.
