A rivers-eye view of the Freeport intake
“It’s a really very significant project here. The fact that it took such and long time and the fact that it took a lot of people with various diverse interests, who had their own particular goals, coming together and realizing that when it comes to water you just gotta come together and figure out how to move forward.” The words of Representative Doris Matsui were echoed over and over Thursday morning by a dozen speakers at the dedication for the new water intake plant along the Sacramento River. (Congressmen John Garamendi and Dan Lundgren joined Matsui to celebrate the dedication. Rep. Jerry McNerney, who represents the East Bay Area, was not able to attend.) You may have watched and heard the construction of the massive six-acre site for months without knowing exactly what was being built or the history of the project.
The Freeport Regional Water Project is an intake system that can suck 286-cubic feet of water per second from the Sacramento River. The project is a collaboration between Sacramento County and the East Bay Municipal Water District (East Bay MUD). The water will go to southeast Sacramento County and east Bay Area homes. The stream of time that has wound its way to the southern border of the Pocket area began 38 years ago.
Dedication plaque at the Freeport Regional Water Project
The California Board of Reclamation in 1972 granted East Bay MUD the right to take water from the American River and pipe it west. The ensuing legal and media battle between East Bay MUD and the people and representative of Sacramento lasted 24 years. The Chairman of the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors, Roger Dickinson, remembers what broke the battle lines. “In 1996 when I was chair of the Board of Supervisors, East Bay MUD began to focus its attention on realizing the rights that it had secured,” recalls Dickinson, “Throughout 2000 and 1999 we started to realized that we needed to have a different approach if we were ever going to reach a solution. So we began to meet with two members of the Board of Supervisors, two members with the Sacramento City Council and two members of the East Bay MUD board on a somewhat regular basis. Those meetings were quite helpful, not just because we broke bread, as was suggested earlier, but because we also withdrew a cork or two from a bottle. And they led us eventually, in fact, to John Garamendi’s office at the Department of Interior and ultimately to the attention of Senator Dianne Feinstein.” In 2002, the group came to an agreement that the water East Bay MUD was promised would come not from the American but from the Sacramento. In January 2003 the first steps began in the process that led to the massive plant we see today. (Click here for the entire timeline.)
The "river" word art visible from I-5
Now that the project is complete compliments flowed during the ceremony. Even with so much goodwill flowing many of the speakers at the dedication see a parallel to a much larger problem looming on the proverbial horizon and took the opportunity to address it. “Seeing this thing unfold,” Representative Matsui tells Pocket Online, “you realize with our big water wars that seem to be erupting this is going to have to be taken very seriously about what each region’s way of life brings to this whole discussion. So I think this is going to be instrumental in how we proceed forward as far as the big state discussion.” As California moves forward to look for solutions to growing water problems and growing resentment over the revived Peripheral Canal to pipe Delta water south, Cynthia Koehler of the Environmental Defense Fund says the Freeport project may serve an even greater good. “The Freeport project represents the kind of positive things possible when waters districts, municipalities and environmental organizations come together to find solutions,” said Koehler praising the partnership, “This project is a key example of how we can provide secure, reliable water rights in ways that our compatible with our natural streams and natural heritage.” Supervisor Dickinson agrees, “We have the tremendous responsibility to use this water well and wisely. Because if we’ve learned a thing about California, as Congresswoman Matsui said, we have learned that the history of California is the history of water.”
A tour of the new river promanade.
The project was not without some detractors from the nearby South Pocket neighborhoods. The noise and dust from the construction combined with such a massive change to the river scape concerned many. Supervisor Jimmie Yee took time at the dedication to address the locals. “The ones I don’t want to forget are our neighbors right down the street who had to put up with all the noise, dirt, dust,” Yee told the crowd. “Everything you can think of during the construction of this huge project. I want to thank those neighbors for being so cooperative and working with us to get this particular project built.” Matsui also recognized the impact this project has had on our community. “I think that with any kind of project like this, not everyone’s going to be one-hundred percent but in a democracy not everything is one-hundred percent as we well know. So hopefully as this thing develops further and the plants grow and they are able to plant more trees over here and the people in the neighborhood begin to appreciate the beauty of this here and being actually able to look at the river from here. I think that, in time, people around here will appreciate this as being something that’s going to be an enhancement for their neighborhood.”
Dorothy at the end of the trail (for now)
Throughout the dedication ceremony a few people walking or bicycling along the levee trail stopped at the fence separating the path from the intake grounds to watch the ceremony. Dorothy and her husband just want to know when the fence will come down so they can ride their bicycles farther down the river. Well Dorothy, look forward to a longer trail toward the end of the year. (See here.)
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I don't know how many of you venture out in a boat, but if you have for many years like I have the major concern is that we are getting too much build up on the river bottom. People say the river is running high because of all of the rain and snow, which in fact it is not. I remember fishing spots along the Brickyard, Minnow Hole, Garcia Bend and Freeport being 17-24 feet deep, now these spots are 9-12 feet deep and the water levels are at the same position along the levee from when I was a kid growing up in this area. I have been here all of my life (39 years) and fished a lot of those years on the river watching things change. The flows are not flushing out the river they are letting silt build up and with this new pumping plant it may even get worse.
The city now charges $8 for launching a boat at Garcia Bend and Miller Park. They said that the money was for cleaning the ramps of silt build up…they haven't been cleaned since they started charging.
Think about the new pumping plant and your ability to access your own river…not a pretty picture is it.
Neither Matsui nor Jimmy Yee ever lifted a finger to help the neighbors. They kept talking to us about how we had to take the hit for the "overall good." They failed in their most fundamental duty to represent their constituents (even if you personally think the greater good requires sacrifice, it's still your job as a legislator with a specific constituency to address their concerns as best you can). It's a shame they are trying to take credit now.