Contact:
Santa Clara Valley Water District
Mike Di Marco
(408) 265-2607 ext. 2423
Pager: (408) 488-3963
E-mail: mikedima@scvwd.dst.ca.us

City of San José
Lindsey Wolf
(408) 277-5597
Pager: (408) 788-3194

Date: Feb. 11, 2002

Partnership for protecting Santa Clara Valley watershed catches eye of state officials

California officials stopping in Santa Clara County to find out what we're doing to protect natural resources without creating economic and environmental impacts

SAN JOSÉ - Despite urban sprawl, traffic congestion and occasional smog, Santa Clara Valley's environmental health is beginning to see improvements.

In fact, according to California Gov. Gray Davis, the Santa Clara Basin Watershed - the land and streams that stretch from Santa Clara Valley out to San Francisco Bay -- is one of the 10 best-managed watersheds in the state.

Members of the governor's Joint Task Force on California Watershed Management will be in San José on Wednesday, Feb. 13, to find out what's being done to protect the Santa Clara Basin watershed and to hear what kind of help is needed from the state and federal governments to provide even more protection of natural resources without creating economic or environmental impacts.

The meeting starts at 10:45 a.m. in the Santa Clara Valley Water District headquarters building, 5700 Almaden Expressway (one block south of Blossom Hill Road), San Jose.

The Santa Clara Basin Watershed has been under increasing pressure from continued population growth, resulting in traffic congestion, pollution and increased demand for natural resources. At the same time, residents depend on the watershed for clean water, clean air, open space and habitat for wildlife.

Although individual public agencies, advocacy groups and individuals have been working over the past decade or more to improve specific facets of the watershed, the Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative was formed in 1996 to coordinate all of those efforts.

Since its formation, the local Watershed Management Initiative developed a strategy for meeting tomorrow's water needs, initiated a program to maintain and improve water quality and habitat in San Francisco Bay and in hundreds of miles of local streams, and influenced construction on a project to improve habitat in the valley's largest river for steelhead trout while providing greater flood protection in the heart of Silicon Valley.

"Watersheds help find what unites rather than what divides a community," said Mary D. Nichols, California Resources Agency secretary. "They also bring out creativity and innovation by bringing together many viewpoints through the collaborative process.

"Watershed partnerships, such as the Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative, are a vital link in fulfilling the state's responsibilities for natural resource stewardship."

The Santa Clara Basin Watershed Management Initiative involves elected leaders and administrators from more than a dozen public agencies, several environmental organizations, representatives from the business community and advocacy groups - all of whom have signed on to participate over the long haul.

Leaders of the governor's task force - including Nichols, State Water Resources Control Board Chairman Art Baggett Jr. and a representative of CalEPA Secretary Winston Hickox - will learn first-hand the challenges faced by the partnership to operate in a broad, consensus-based manner. Chief among these are:

• Balancing the objectives of water supply management, habitat protection, flood management and land use in ways that protect and enhance water quality;
• Protecting and/or restoring streams, reservoirs, wetlands and the bay for the benefit of fish, wildlife and human uses;
• Developing a watershed management plan that incorporates science and is continuously improved;
• Streamlining regulatory requirements without compromising environmental protection, and
• Providing necessary resources to carry out WMI strategies.
  

The information from the meeting Wednesday is part of a statewide effort by the Joint Task Force on California Watershed Management to evaluate relationships of state and federal agencies to local watershed group efforts. The task force was established through Assembly Bill 2117 and requires the Resources Agency, CalEPA and State Water Resources Control Board to submit a full report to the state Legislature this spring.

"All of us have the responsibility to protect, preserve and restore these watersheds for the benefit of those who live here, the millions of visitors that recreate, the migratory birds that rest in our waters, the farms that supply our food and the generations yet to come," Baggett said.

"This report is the beginning of a process to set aside differences and do just that."