California drought: Water district looking to buy land to construct largest Bay Area reservoir in 20 years.
The Santa Clara Valley Water District is hoping to build an $800 million reservoir in southern Santa Clara County near Pacheco Pass, along with a dam up to 300 feet high.
The reservoir would hold 130,000 acre feet of water — enough for 650,000 people’s annual use.
If completed, the project would result in the construction of a reservoir nearly the size of Los Vaqueros in Contra Costa County, which was the last major reservoir built in the Bay Area when it was constructed in 1998.
But Santa Clara Valley Water District officials say the recent drought showed them they need even more water storage.
Last week, the board of the San Jose-based district authorized its staff to sign an agreement with the Valley Habitat Agency, a government agency that works to preserve wildlife habitat in southern Santa Clara County, to negotiate purchase of the huge property surrounding the dam site.
The Valley Habitat Agency, created in 2013, is a partnership of government agencies, including Santa Clara County, and the cities of San Jose, Gilroy and Morgan Hill, along with affiliated agencies like the water district and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority.
The agency has never purchased a property the size of El Toro Ranch, Armento said.
Under the proposal, the new reservoir would be built on, or slightly upstream from, an existing reservoir, Pacheco Lake, in the rugged ranch lands about half a mile north of Highway 152 near Casa de Fruta.
That lake, owned by the tiny Pacheco Pass Water District, sits on Pacheco Creek behind North Fork Dam, a 100-foot earthen dam built in 1939.