It's Raining, It's Pouring

I was lucky to miss out on most of last week’s wet weather, thanks to a business trip to New York. Or at least, I was lucky until I had to sit in JFK for an additional 3.5 hours, waiting for San Francisco air traffic control to clear my flight back to the Bay Area (because of the rain).

Once home it was clear, from just looking at the Green Valley Creek, that my husband didn’t exaggerate when he told me that Danville had experienced its fair share of the recent downpours.

And I have to admit that I was kind of expecting to see cone markers along Diablo Road again (as in past years), warning drivers of mudslides from the Magee Ranch land that borders this stretch of road. Fortunately this is not the case – yet.

But the recent rain does remind me of one of the key issues that Save Our Creek has with the proposed SummerHill Homes development on this same piece of Magee ranch land. And that is flooding. 

Since I became involved with the organization back in the fall of 2010, I have heard many stories from local residents about erosion and flooding. Indeed, along some parts of the Green Valley Creek, like by St. Timothy’s Church, the bank is apparently so eroded that the road is nearly collapsing. Likewise I also heard that a local bridge had to be repaired by the Town of Danville last year because of storm flows – and this, allegedly, came with a high price tag.

Obviously this is second hand information, so I defer to you the reader, to provide your own stories by commenting on this blog post.

HOWEVER, what I can tell you is that Contra Costa County Flood Control is fully aware of the poor state of the Green Valley Creek, including the East Branch that flows through the Diablo Road corridor. Moreover, they sent a response to The Town of Danville’s Notice of Preparation. In this letter, the County made several recommendations related to things that the Town of Danville should require the developer (SummerHill) to do, as well as things that the Draft Environmental Impact Report should address in terms of mitigation.

But there were five quotes from this letter that I especially want to share:

1. “The developer needs to show that the proposed project will not exacerbate the existing capacity issues on Green Valley Creek by increasing peak volumes and duration.”
2. “We are concerned about the potential for increased erosion within the reaches of Green Valley Creek downstream of this project.”
3. “We are concerned that Green Valley Creek will be affected by the secondary storm drain system, which appears to be designed to prevent minor tributary drainage flows upstream of the proposed development from flowing through the development…”
4. “The Town of Danville (Town) and the Developer should be made aware that residences adjacent to East Branch Green Valley Creek…downstream of the Subdivision, have reported flooding and erosion issues.”
5. “The FC District and the Army Corps of Engineers have performed studies that show that Green Valley Creek downstream of this project does not have sufficient capacity for the 100-year flow event considering the ultimate build-out condition.”

So, long story short, for those of you who haven’t viewed flooding as a key issue for this development, it may be time to reconsider. And if you want to join Save Our Creek's opposition of the SummerHill project, then please sign the petition!