Some 236 years after the recorded history of the creek began, the people who live on its banks and beyond are still looking for ways to preserve its health and riparian beauty and its plant and animal inhabitants. Yet finding a solution to the “hundred year flood” is a paramount issue.
Lifestyles of creek dwellers have changed considerably through the decades of the last two centuries. None have lived as closely with it as the Native Americans. Many today are barely aware of the existence of this remarkable complexity of waters flowing through our towns, past shopping centers and schools and backyards. Until disaster strikes.
The tremendous damage caused by the floods of 1998 led to the formation of the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority in 1999. The JPA consists of representatives from Menlo Park, Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, the San Mateo County Flood Control District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District (with Stanford and the San Francisquito Watershed Council serving as advisory members.) Portola Valley and Woodside have been asked to become members. Its mission is the preparation of a Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration report for the watershed.
The JPA has an annual budget of approximately $350,000 and has been skillful in securing grants and federal partnerships for specific projects. It links up with cities, private citizens and various other agencies seeking short-term solutions to flooding and erosion as well as resource enhancement. At the same time, it is moving forward with studies focused on a long-term resolution for the entire watershed.
Undertaking short-term solutions while working on an overall long-range watershed management plan is complicated, and it is costly: $100,000 in federal funding was authorized for an initial study. JPA members will match federal funds over the next four years for a total of $4 million to $6 million. It is thought that a long-term solution could cost upward of $100 million.
The JPA has enlisted the United States Army Corps of Engineers as the lead agency in the examination of the entire watershed. Typically, their studies of various potential solutions can take several years. Just responding to comments from an environmental impact report can take two or three years. A standard Corps of Engineers project takes 20 to 40 years.
Meanwhile, the JPA and various other agencies have been continuing their efforts to prevent flooding. Portions of the creek system have been cleared of silt. Levees downstream from Bayshore Highway have been restored to 1958 heights. A coordinated interagency stream maintenance program is established with visual inspections every summer to anticipate and attempt to prevent rainy weather problems. A greatly improved communication system is in place with creek monitoring stations, a Website, and an automatic telephone warning system in Palo Alto. Portola Valley and the JPA have provided a Citizens’ Guide to Creekside Property Protection.
The Coordinated Resources Management Plan (CRMP) has been renamed the San Francisquito Watershed Council, a project of Acterra. Its members, staff and volunteers have continued their work. They have conducted studies on barriers to fish passage, flood investigation, flow conditions and pollution. Seven dams have been notched, one removed, and a fish ladder installed by Stanford at the Felt Lake diversion dam, giving steelhead trout a chance to spawn upstream. An aggressive program of invasive plant removal and replanting of natives enhances natural conditions in certain areas from upper Corte Madera Creek in Portola Valley to the estuary in East Palo Alto. A network of streamkeepers watches over the creek. Regular cleanups continue, although fortunately the workers find less trash nowadays.
A group of environmentalists and historians has placed a series of six panels explaining the watershed story on both sides of the Bonde Pedestrian/bike Bridge connecting the Menlo Park and Palo Alto portions of Alma Street. There passersby can gain an understanding of the human and natural history of the creeks and watch the San Francisquito flow by below, perhaps seeing juvenile steelhead going to sea in early April.
And Portola Valley has just convened a committee to study the removal of Sausal Creek from a culvert through which it has flowed for some 50 years so that it would once again flow freely through the Town Center. The committee is charged with examining at least 12 issues.
As the work continues, changes along the banks take place. Another new set of neighbors has moved in, as the 388-unit Hyatt retirement community opened adjacent to the creek opposite Stanford Shopping Center. And a series of cameras has been placed in the creek to watch for mountain lions. The riparian path is a likely route for the occasional one has that turned up in a populated area.
The issue of the creek has suddenly become even more complicated in the last weeks. Federal money amounting to as much as $450,000 that had been expected isn’t included in the 2007 budget which creates uncertainty about the possibility of the proposed study. And alarming reports have been issued about the durability of the levees that protect East Palo Alto.
And the creeks flow on. Few, including the flood control agencies, believe that forcing them into concrete channels is the solution to flooding. There are still places along their banks where people can find quiet, shady spots, watch the water swirl by and think about the people who have stood in that same place in times gone by. How to preserve and enhance the life of the creek and at the same time prevent the agony of flooded homes is the challenge for today’s people of the creek. How we do it is a test of our wisdom and our will.
Nancy Lund is the historian of Portola Valley and a member of the Almanac’s Panel of Contributors.
