Date: May 21, 2004

Proposal would re-open county reservoir to ‘clean-burning’ personal watercraft

SANTA CLARA COUNTY — Residents are invited to a public meeting Monday, May 24, to voice their opinion on a proposal to re-open Anderson Reservoir to personal watercraft use after a five-year hiatus to protect the water from the gasoline additive MTBE.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Mt. Madonna YMCA building, 17666 Crest Ave. (north of West Main Avenue), Morgan Hill.

Under the proposal by the Santa Clara Valley Water District and Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, Anderson Reservoir east of Morgan Hill and Calero Reservoir south of San Jose would allow personal watercraft (PWC) that meet California Air Resources Board (CARB) 2001 or U.S. EPA 2006 standards.
Only personal watercraft with four-stroke engines or two-stroke direct fuel-injection engines meet those standards.

The proposal comes five years after both agencies, working with the local boating community, agreed to close Anderson Reservoir to all personal watercraft and to restrict their numbers at Calero to protect both reservoirs from the gasoline additive MTBE.

Now that MTBE is no longer added to gas supplies and PWC engine technology has improved, allowing “clean-burning” PWC in greater numbers onto Anderson and Calero reservoirs is not considered an immediate threat to water quality.

Restrictions on the types of PWC are intended to protect the reservoirs from other harmful components of gasoline that could make their way into drinking water.

If the proposal is accepted, the water district will continue to regularly sample water in the reservoirs for gasoline-related chemicals. If any contamination is detected, the water district will consider implementing more boating restrictions.

The water district board of directors established a policy 30 years ago to allow recreational uses of the county’s reservoirs, as long as those activities do not harm the community’s water resources.

The policy is perhaps most evident through a partnership with the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, which oversees recreational opportunities at eight of the county’s 10 reservoirs, and along several miles of creeks in the county.

For more information about the proposal, visit the mtbe information on the water district Web site, or the Web site of County Parks, www.parkhere.org.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District manages Santa Clara County's wholesale drinking water resources, coordinates flood protection for its 1.7 million residents and provides stewardship for the county's 10 reservoirs and more than 800 miles of streams.