OPINION: Water District, Green Foothills Committee Don’t Serve the Public's Interests

By Cynthia Riordan
Saratoga, CA

Neither the Santa Clara Valley Water District nor the Committee for Green Foothills care about wasting $7 million in taxpayer money on a proposed flood basin in Rancho San Antonio Park, one of the largest open spaces in Santa Clara County. One half million residents enjoy Rancho annually.

The proposed 15-acre Rancho flood basin will remove over 100 trees and 200,000 cubic yards of soil. It will destroy the existing wetland basin, something that would never be permitted if proposed by the private sector. The water district cannot defend its hydrology calculations which independent local engineers, Richard Moll and Mike Hayden, say are exaggerated by at least 200 percent. Both Moll and Hayden contend the proposed Rancho basin will not have any meaningful flow. Do we have a different standard for the water district, here?

In planning the Rancho basin, water district engineers have ignored the U.S. Geological Survey’s 1986 report 89-4130, which warns that altering the existing Rancho basin may destroy the natural wetland meadow and drop the natural, historic water table.

 On June 25, I telephoned the Committee for Green Foothills asking for support in the form of a letter to the water district questioning their plans for a basin at Rancho San Antonio Park, then followed up with environmental impact and hydrology reports from local experts. So far, no one has responded.