The Loma Prietan
April 2003
Defend Henry Coe: No Reservoirs in State Parks
by John Wilkinson
Of all the parks in the greater Bay Area, Henry W. Coe State Park is the biggest and the wildest. Among California state parks, only Anza Borrego in San Diego County is larger. Coe has long been a favorite playground for hardcore hikers. They all have their Coe stories: tales of getting soaked, frozen, baked, exhausted, lost. It's a place for those always in search of adventures.
The less obsessed also share the joy of cruising Coe's ridgetops and splashing through its sycamore-shaded canyon bottoms. Over 400 miles of trails wind their way through a maze of canyons and ridges. Coe is home to mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, deer, salamanders, and tarantulas. Right now the park is exploding with wildflowers: go out with a guidebook and you can learn dozens of species in a day's ramble.
Lovers of the park were shocked as news began to circulate late last year of proposals by the Santa Clara Valley Water District for dam projects that would flood parts of Henry Coe. The most outrageous of these proposals, labelled the "Coe Reservoir" (since withdrawn), would have destroyed miles of canyons in the very heart of the park. The planned Los Osos Reservoir would drown Hunting Hollow and make many areas inaccessible to day-hikers. The proposed Pacheco reservoirs would also flood areas of great beauty. Surely this wasn't what Mrs. Robinson had in mind when she made the initial grant for Henry W. Coe State Park!
The proposed reservoirs are among the alternatives being considered by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to address the so-called San Luis Reservoir Low Point Problem. San Luis Reservoir, the big artificial lake that borders Highway 152 near Gilroy, fills up during the winter and is drawn down in summer. When the level falls below a certain point, algae blooms from the surface start to contaminate the inlet to the Pacheco Pumping Station, which supplies water to the Santa Clara Valley. This is the Low Point Problem.
Among the proposals for addressing the problem, the Water District proposes to use Henry W. Coe State Park to provide additional storage. There are of course many alternative solutions (bypassing San Luis Reservoir, water conservation measures, and others), but damming areas of Coe appears to be the only alternative they really want. As John Muir wrote in his great 1912 Hetch Hetchy essay, "The proponents of the dam scheme bring forward a lot of bad arguments to prove that the only righteous thing to do with the people's parks is to destroy them bit by bit as they are able."
The Chapter recently voted to oppose all such projects on the grounds that they would violate the purpose of the state parks as established by California state law. In so doing we are continuing the long Sierra Club tradition of fighting irresponsible dam projects.
The Club is working with other organizations such as Friends of the River, Advocates for Coe Park, and the California State Parks Foundation to get the dam projects affecting Henry Coe removed from consideration. For more information on this effort, visit the website: www.coeadvocates.org.
How can you help in this important fight? Write letters to the Santa Clara Valley Water District and the California Department of Parks and Recreation to express your opinion on the potential damming of areas of Henry Coe (see sidebar, above right). And of course, go visit the park! The Black Mountain Regional Group, Gay and Lesbian Sierrans, and Dayhikers all have hikes scheduled in Henry W. Coe State Park in the next couple of months. And as a special Loma Prieta Chapter event to focus on the current threat, Libby Vincent, a Coe volunteer and hike leader for the Black Mountain Group, will lead a hike on April 13 to visit the area of Pacheco Creek that would be drowned by the proposed Pacheco reservoir. Join us on this special trip (see box at left for details).
John Wilkinson is a hike leader for the Loma Prieta Chapter. He wishes to thank Rob Yang for first calling attention to the dam proposals; Howard Johnson for his early and passionate agitation; and Dennis Pinion for his tireless spadework.
What You Can Do
To help defend Henry W. Coe State Park from this
threat, write a letter expressing your disagreement with the Water
District's dam proposals. Address letters to:
Kurt Arends, Project Manager
Santa Clara Valley Water District
5750 Alamaden Expressway
San Jose, CA 95118-3614
The California Department of Parks and Recreation
(DPR) has expressed strong opposition to the Coe dam proposals. Write to
the DPR to thank them for their position and ask what you can do to
help. Address letters to:
Ruth Coleman, Acting Director
Department of Parks and Recreation
P.O. Box 942896
Sacramento, CA 94296-0001
You can also write to the Governor or your state
legislators to request stronger and more specific language in the state
law regarding the protection of state park lands from dam building.