Upper Guadalupe River Flood Protection Project
Reports, documents and
environmental review

Army Corps of Engineers Feasibility Study
The feasibility study was initiated in 1990 and includes an environmental impact report and statement and a recreation plan sponsored by the City of San Jose. The National Economic Development Plan in the feasibility report was developed for approximately a 2 percent flood, or a 50 year level of protection. The district strongly favored overriding this plan and presented compelling arguments for a greater level of protection for such an extensively urban area. The San Francisco District of the Corps concurred and requested a waiver allowing for the locally preferred 100 year plan and recreational elements to be the basis for cost sharing.

In January 1998, the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army did not concur with the recommendation to use the locally preferred environmentally sensitive100-year plan as a basis for cost sharing. The district has requested that the costs of providing 50 year and 100 year flood protection both be analyzed again during the preconstruction engineering design phase for determination of the National Economic Development Plan, believing the 100-year plan not only provides the best protection for the community, but is most economically feasible and has greater environmental benefit. In addition, the district doubts the 50-year plan can actually be built, due to the recent federal listing of steelhead. The decision of the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army was confirmed in a June 1999 Record of Decision letter signed by the Assistant Secretary of the Army. Subsequently, based on Congressional delegation requests, the Assistant Secretary of the Army directed the San Francisco District of the Corps to provide a reevaluation report.

The San Francisco District of the Corps completed the requested Upper Guadalupe River Reevaluation of Final Feasibility Study Office Report in June 2000. In a memorandum for the Assistant Secretary of the Army dated October 12, 2000, Major General Hans A. Van Winkle, Deputy Commander for Civil Works, discussed the conclusions of the reevaluation report, recommended that additional studies be carried out during the preconstruction engineering and design phase to confirm to the National Economic Development Plan, and recommended that the locally-preferred plan be considered for full federal participation subject to a positive report.

The Corps is currently in the preconstruction engineering and design phase. They are refining the National Economic Development Plan to address agency’s comments and Endangered Species Act issues and reevaluating the locally-preferred plan for full federal cost-sharing. The district’s Board of Directors certified the final Environmental Impact Report and approved the project on Aug. 15, 2001.