Frequently Asked Questions

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Where can I find copies of the Shoreline Study Phase 1 Final and Draft Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement/Reports?
What is the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Study?
Why is the Shoreline Study being conducted?
How could climate change affect the South Bay?
What geographic area does the Shoreline Study cover?
When is the project going to be built?
What about plans for other parts of Santa Clara County outside
the Alviso area?
What are the goals and objectives of the Shoreline Study?
How much would the project cost?
What were the results of the Army Corps' flood risk modeling?
Does the Shoreline Study look at flooding from creeks and rivers?
Who is managing the project?
How do I find out more about the Shoreline Study?
What sort of habitat restoration could the Shoreline Study project include?
Why is the Corps interested in ecosystem restoration?
Tell me about the Shoreline Study's progress and timeline.
How does the Shoreline Study relate to the South Bay Salt Pond
Restoration Project?
Will the Shoreline Study result in a different plan than the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project?
What is the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project?

Q: Where can I find copies of the Shoreline Study Phase 1 Final and Draft Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement/Reports?

A: The report is available to view or download at the following website:

http://www.spn.usace.army.mil/Library/FreedomofInformationAct/FOIAHotTopics.aspx

The draft report is available to view or download at the following website:

http://www.valleywater.org/SSFBS-DEIR.aspx

In addition, CDs or hard copies of the reports are available at:

The Alviso Library at 5050 N. First St., San Jose - map link
The Milpitas Public Library at 160 N. Main St., Milpitas - map link
The Santa Clara Valley Water District at 5700 Almaden Expressway, San Jose - map link

Final report only:

The San Jose Public Library Calabazas Branch at 1230 S Blaney Ave., San Jose
The San Jose Public Library Evergreen Branch at 2635 Aborn Rd., San Jose
The San Jose Public Library Hillview Branch at 1600 Hopkins Dr., San Jose
The San Jose Public Library Santa Teresa Branch at 290 International Circle, San Jose

Q: What is the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Study?

A: The South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Study is a Congressionally authorized study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers together with the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the State Coastal Conservancy to identify and recommend flood protection and ecosystem restoration projects in South San Francisco Bay for Federal funding. The Corps is considering projects that will reduce flood risk, restore ecosystems and provide related benefits like recreation and public access.

Q: Why is the Shoreline Study being conducted?

A: Santa Clara County’s shoreline is at great risk from flooding now due to extreme storm events combined with high tides, and in the future due to sea level rise. In their recently released “California's Flood Future” Report, the California Department of Water Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers identified Santa Clara County, along with Los Angeles and Orange Counties, as having the highest potential damages from flooding in the state. Portions of Santa Clara County nearest the Bay are below sea level, and many high-tech companies are located along the shoreline, along with residents and the largest Water Pollution Control Plant in the Bay Area, which serves more than 1 million people (this map shows Silicon Valley inundation risks with potential sea level rise).

Q: How could climate change affect the South Bay?

A: Global climate change has the potential to impact the South Bay because one of the expected results of climate change is sea level rise. The Shoreline Study is the first study of its kind in the Bay Area to develop a concrete plan to provide flood risk management in light of sea level rise in the Bay.

The science dealing with sea level rise has rapidly developed over the past few years as scientists have produced numerous studies. The Shoreline Study team is using a range of projections from the historic rate of sea level rise to over 2 feet of sea level rise by the year 2067 in assessing South Bay flood risk.

Q: What geographic area does the Shoreline Study cover?

A: The study assessed flood risk damages for all Santa Clara County baylands, from Palo Alto to Southern Alameda County. It also considered restoration of former salt ponds within the Alviso Pond complex and adjacent properties such as areas around Moffett Field.

The study is being conducted in phases. The current phase focuses on the section of the Santa Clara County shoreline that will exhibit the greatest flood risk in the future due to sea level rise: the north San Jose shoreline area between Alviso Slough and Coyote Creek, which includes the Alviso community and the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant (see map). Known within the Shoreline Study as Economic Impact Area 11, or EIA 11, it includes homes, commercial and industrial facilities generally located below sea level and protected by salt pond levees. Planning for EIA 11 would enhance flood risk management for an area with high potential for future flood damage and allow wetland restoration to occur nearby by breaching salt pond levees. The proposed levees would also protect several high tech businesses and the new Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Center.

Q: When is the project going to be built?

A: The draft Feasibility Study and environmental impact statement/report were released to the public in December 2014 and the release was followed by a public comment period and a public meeting. The final report was released in September 2015. In December 2015, the Army Corps Chief of Engineers recommended that Congress authorize the Shoreline Study Once Congress authorizes a project and appropriates funds, detailed design of project features could begin, possibly as soon as 2016, and construction could begin in 2017 at the earliest. The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Safe Clean Water measure, passed in 2012, includes $15 million to share project construction costs. Once the report goes to Congress, partners will begin studying possible projects in other parts of Santa Clara County with high expected flood-related economic damages, such as parts of Palo Alto, Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

Q: What about plans for other parts of Santa Clara County outside the Alviso area?

A: The Santa Clara Valley Water District’s Safe Clean Water measure, passed in 2012, includes $5 million to share the cost with the Corps of Engineers to study additional Economic Impact Areas in the overall Shoreline Study, starting potentially in 2015.

The other shoreline areas with high economic impacts from coastal flooding include portions of Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale (see map).

Prior to starting the next phase of the Shoreline Study in 2015/2016, the Santa Clara Water District is analyzing the existing conditions along Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale’s shorelines in order to better scope the level of effort needed to address flood protection and habitat restoration in future phases of the Shoreline Study with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Q: What are the goals and objectives of the Shoreline Study?

A: In a phased approach, the parts of Santa Clara County’s shoreline with the highest potential damages from flooding will be protected using a combination of flood protection levees and wetlands. This approach using natural infrastructure would provide increased flood protection and restored Bay habitats, as well as a flood protection system that can evolve in the future.

The first feasibility study for EIA 11 identified and recommended flood protection projects that meet the following goals:

Protect low-lying areas of San Jose and Alviso from flooding by a flood event that has a 1% probability of occurring in any given year.
Protect the area from just over 2 feet of sea level rise.
Protect urban areas next to north San Jose and Alviso from tidal flooding, including the City and County water pollution control plant.
Restore up to 3.5 square miles of wetland habitat.
Contribute to creation of the West Coast’s largest restored wetland with extensive habitat for endangered species, fish, & migratory birds.
Provide enhanced public trails & recreation opportunities.

Q: How much would the project cost?

A: The total cost for the flood levee and restoration for the Alviso area (EIA 11) is projected at about $140 million. The non-Federal sponsors, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD) and the State Coastal Conservancy, would need to provide 35% of that cost. Santa Clara County voters have already approved $15 million for implementing the Shoreline Study as part of SCVWD’s Safe Clean Water renewal ballot measure. Part of the value of the salt ponds lands, paid for with state funds, would count towards the non-Federal share as well.

Q: What were the results of the Army Corps' flood risk modeling?

A: The Army Corps' economic analysis looked at the impact of flooding under three sea level change scenarios for 14 areas in Santa Clara County and southern Alameda County. Four areas indicated high levels of potential damages under all three sea level change scenarios. Two additional areas indicated high levels of potential damages under only the highest sea level rise scenario (see map).

Areas with Projected Annual Damages from Tidal Flooding

Area of South Bay	Sea Level Rise Curve H	Sea Level Rise Curve 1	Sea Level Rise Curve 3
Area of South Bay	Damage in Millions (in the year 2067)
EIA 2: Palo Alto, Matadero Creek to Barron Creek	$1.8	$2.5	$17.4
EIA 3: Palo Alto, Barron Creek to Adobe Creek	$1.2	$1.7	$17
EIA 7: Sunnyvale, Stevens Creek to Sunnyvale West Creek - Non-NASA	$13.4	$15.9	$24.5
EIA 8: Sunnyvale			$22.1
EIA 11: Alviso, Guadalupe Creek to Coyote Creek	$1.2	$2.5	$19
EIA 13: Fremont			$17.6

Equivalent annual damages are calculated by taking expected annual damages, converting them to a single present worth value, then amortizing them over the analysis period using the federal discount rate.

Q: Does the Shoreline Study look at flooding from creeks and rivers?

A: The Shoreline Study focuses on managing tidal flood risk, but included an evaluation of combined flooding from extreme high tides and flooding from rivers or creeks due to storm events. Flood risk from individual creeks has been reduced by a number of existing projects in the area. In Santa Clara County, several streams carry runoff through the valley and north to San Francisco Bay. The two largest rivers — the Guadalupe River and Coyote Creek — have been retrofitted to provide flood risk management along their banks to most communities, including the community of Alviso in north San Jose.

Q: Who is managing the project?

A: The Shoreline Study is funded by a partnership among the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the California State Coastal Conservancy. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and City of San Jose are also involved in the planning process. The Corps and the SCVWD were active project management team members throughout the planning phase of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project and the SCVWD remains an active management team member of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. Extensive coordination has occurred, and will continue to occur, between the two projects.

Q: How do I find out more about the Shoreline Study?

A: There are a number of agencies involved in the project and you are free to telephone any of the project managers:

Caleb Conn, Project Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: 415.503-6849
Rechelle Blank, Project Manager, Santa Clara Valley Water District: 408.630-2632
Brenda Buxton, Project Manager, California State Coastal Conservancy: 510.286-0753
Anne Morkill, Refuge Manager, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: 510.792-0222

In addition, Shoreline Study partners will hold public meetings at key project milestones to present results and hear from interested stakeholders and other members of the public.

Q: What sort of habitat restoration could the Shoreline Study project include?

A: Plans would restore up to 3.5 square miles of wetland habitat and add new public trails and recreation opportunities. We also plan to bring fill into the project area to create broad upland transition areas so that we can recreate a vanished resource: the gradual transition habitat from marshes to upland areas. All such areas around the Bay have been developed, so no transition habitat for wildlife remains.

This large area of wetlands will both provide much-needed wetland habitat for endangered species, migratory birds, and fish and other aquatic species, as well as aiding in flood protection for the South Bay.

Ecosystem restoration and flood risk management will go hand-in-hand in the Alviso area. For example, as salt-evaporation ponds are breached and opened to the Bay’s tides to create tidal marsh, levees located between newly created tidal marsh and Santa Clara County communities are likely to be replaced or upgraded to provide better flood protection. Conversely, construction of flood protection features adjacent to low-lying urban areas will allow for restoration of land on the bayside of these features.

Q: Why is the Corps interested in ecosystem restoration?

A: Ecosystem restoration was designated as a primary mission area for the Corps in 1986, but the Corps has been involved in improving the environment since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969. Corps ecosystem restoration projects include dam removals and modifications, fish-ladder installation, wetlands creation, and improvements along riparian corridors. In partnership with local agencies, the Corps has been involved in a large number of ecosystem projects across the nation, including the Louisiana Coastal Project and the restoration of the Florida Everglades. In Northern California, the Corps has co-sponsored projects such as Sonoma Baylands, Hamilton Wetlands, and the Napa Salt Marsh Restoration here in the Bay Area and the Yolo Basin Wildlife Area near Sacramento.

Q: Tell me about the Shoreline Study's progress and timeline.

A. Shoreline Study Timeline:

1992: The Corps took an initial look at the potential for coastal flooding in the South Bay, but could not recommend a Federal flood risk management project along the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline, because, at the time, Cargill owned and maintained the salt pond levees and the study assumed that Cargill would continue to own and maintain them in the future. Although the salt pond levees were not engineered or built for the purpose of flood control, they have provided incidental flood protection for the neighboring low-lying communities, and if salt companies had not continued to maintain them, these communities could have been flooded.
2002: Anticipating the transfer of Cargill’s lands to the State and Federal governments, the U.S. House of Representatives in July 2002 requested that the Army Corps review its previous study on flood risk along San Francisco Bay and expand the scope of the study to include ecosystem restoration and protection, as well as tidal and fluvial flood risk management.
2003: 15,100 acres of salt ponds in the South Bay were transferred from Cargill Salt to the Federal and State governments.
2004: The Corps completed an initial reconnaissance analysis in September 2004, which determined that, due to the current and future anticipated conditions in the South Bay, it was likely that a Federal flood risk management and ecosystem restoration project would be feasible and economically justified.
2005: In September 2005, project partners completed a Project Management Plan to outline how the work would be conducted, and signed a partnership agreement to conduct the first interim study, the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Alviso Ponds and Santa Clara County Interim Feasibility Study.
2010: In September 2010, the future without-project conditions analysis for the Shoreline Study was completed. The study team found that there are several areas in Santa Clara County at risk of tidal flooding in the future due to sea level rise. These “Economic Impact Areas" or "EIAs" are Matadero Creek to Barron Creek (EIA 2), Barron Creek to Adobe Creek (EIA 3), Stevens Creek to Sunnyvale West Creek (EIA 7), and Guadalupe Creek to Coyote Creek (EIA 11).

In order to address the threat from tidal flooding as quickly as possible, the local sponsors (the Conservancy and the Santa Clara Valley Water District) and the Corps agreed to narrow the focus of the current study to EIA 11, which is the area around the community of Alviso in the far south San Francisco Bay. By dividing the Shoreline Study into smaller components, the Shoreline Study participants anticipate that flood risk management and ecosystem restoration solutions will be developed and implemented more quickly and, once a particular area is successfully completed, the established track record will facilitate implementation of subsequent phases.
2012: The project partners developed and refined project alternatives for the Alviso area and gathered input from stakeholders and the public at a series of meetings of the Alviso Collaborative and at a June 2012 meeting of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project/Shoreline Study Alviso/Santa Clara Working Group. Based on public input, partners adjusted the tentatively preferred set of levee alignments and agreed to study both this set of alignments and other options in an Environmental Impact Report/Statement (EIR/S).
2014-15: The draft Shoreline Study Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Report/Statement (EIR/S) was released for public review December 19, 2014, and public comment was taken until February 23, 2015. The final document was released September 25, 2015, with public comment taken until October 26, 2015. On December 18, 2015, the Chief of Engineers of the Army Corps signed a “Chief’s Report” recommending that Congress authorize the Shoreline Study project.
2016: The Santa Clara Valley Water District Board on March 22, 2016 certified the final environmental impact report and approved the Shoreline Study project, mitigation program and other environmental-related documents. See the Board resolution and agenda item package here. More Water District information about the Shoreline Study project is available here.

Q: How does the Shoreline Study relate to the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project?

A: The study shares common goals with the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, such as tidal flood protection, wetland habitat restoration and wildlife oriented public access, education and recreation. The projects also share the same geographic focus. The projects are being coordinated and complement each other.

The Shoreline Study provides an opportunity to secure Federal funding to assist in implementing parts of the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project. If the Shoreline Study successfully results in a project authorized by Congress for construction, Federal funds would be leveraged with State and local funds to implement some or all of the actions also sought by the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.

Q: Will the Shoreline Study result in a different plan than the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project?

A: Project partners intend the plans to be fully complementary. The purposes of the Shoreline Study and the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project are similar: to develop plans that provide the greatest benefit to the Bay Area community, the State, and the nation. However, the emphasis of the Shoreline Study is to determine if there is a plan (and what the plan is) that represents the best investment of Federal dollars. This plan will help determine the degree of Federal investment in a project that could implement elements also sought by the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.

Q: What is the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project?

A: The South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is a collaborative effort among Federal, State and local agencies working with scientists and the public to develop a programmatic plan for habitat restoration, flood risk management and wildlife-oriented public access within the 15,100 acres of former Cargill industrial salt ponds in South San Francisco Bay. The State Coastal Conservancy, California Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jointly manage the project in collaboration with the Army Corps of Engineers, Alameda County Flood Control District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.