District Releasing Reservoir Water - Not Uvas Where RVers Remain

GILROY, CA -- Water will be released from Santa Clara County reservoirs to reduce the chance of the source reaching its restricted storage limit. Uvas isn't one of them, the Santa Clara Valley Water District announced Tuesday following unprecedented storms that overwhelmed Palo Alto with more than its seasonal norm. The storm also brought snow to most high elevations in the San Francisco Bay Area and buried the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

No evacuations were required because of Uvas Creek rising at the Morgan Hill Campground, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department reported. Deputies were called out even though the creek had no reached the flood stage to provoke residents to leave the RV park.

"There was no need to evacuate," sheriff's spokesman Reggie Cooks said. "It was misinformation."

Granted, the bridge leading to the park prompts a heavy eye on the creek, but that's all par for the course of staying in the Morgan Hill Campground. Phone calls to the campground staff were unreturned.

There's no pressing flood risk downstream. Instead, some residents were told to leave without an accurate explanation why at first glance.

The access road to the park is located within the banks of Uvas Creek. It is known and expected that the bridge access must be closed when Uvas Reservoir is spilling. Keeping with a standard practice, the district informed the RV park last Thursday that Uvas Reservoir may spill, rendering their access road inaccessible.

"It's a common occurrence for that RV park in the creek bed. The bridge makes it inaccessible every time we have a wet winter," water district spokesman Marty Grimes told Patch.

Yes, Uvas Creek has risen to a high level. The water district doesn't conduct releases there because of the steelhead fish runs albeit the reservoir demonstrating a dramatic change between records on Jan. 6 showing it was at only 8.4 percent capacity compared to now. Uvas reached 100 percent last Sunday morning.

Reservoir levels in four Santa Clara County watersheds are listed here http://alert.valleywater.org/rgi.php.

Instead, the water district has tapped other reservoirs to let go of the deluge of precipitation the West Coast has experienced in recent days -- a dramatic departure from the November's absent early winter.

Almaden is one reservoir right at the mark of its spillway of 608.8 feet.

Anderson Reservoir is currently operated to reduce the chance of its level exceeding the storage limit of 58 percent set by the California Division of Safety of Dams. This restriction is a safety measure that is in effect because of the dam’s seismic deficiencies. Currently, the reservoir’s storage is nearly 35 percent of capacity.

District staff assess the likelihood that the reservoir’s storage will reach the storage limit. With the recent storms, the chance that the reservoir could reach that storage limit has increased. Therefore, staff began releasing water through the dam’s outlet at the bottom of the reservoir into Coyote Creek.

Releases are due for the following reservoirs:

• Almaden and Guadalupe in south San Jose
• Chesbro in Morgan Hill
• Steven's Creek in Cupertino
• Coyote in San Martin

-Image via Shutterstock