Client: Coastal Watershed Council
The primary objective of this project was to develop a watershed assessment and enhancement plan for the Aptos Creek Watershed with a focus on restoration and enhancement of salmonids spawning and rearing habitat. Aptos Creek is a small coastal drainage located in southern Santa Cruz County. A variety of land uses occur within the watershed including urban, rural residential, orchards, timber harvests, and recreation. A large portion of land is protected within the Forest of Nisene Marks, which is part of the California State Park System.
Client: Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County
The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County has identified a long-term plan to protect water supply and watershed lands on the Nacimiento River, upstream of Nacimiento Reservoir, through a strategy of conservation easements and direct land acquisition. Through this process, the landowner of the 8,300 acre Attiyeh Ranch, located just upstream of Nacimiento Reservoir, approached The Land Conservancy for assistance in developing a plan to protect his property, in perpetuity, for watershed protection and habitat conservation.
Client: Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County
Waterways is teaming with CMAG Geotechnical Engineers to assist the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County and USFWS with the siting, design, and installation of multiple ponds to enhance and expand habitat for the endangered Santa Cruz Long Toed Salamander.
Client: Boy Scouts of America, Monterey Bay Area Council
The Boy Scouts of America own and operate an 800-acre property on the Little Sur River that is used as a summer camp. A flashboard dam was installed in the 1950s to create an impoundment for recreational and educational uses. The seasonal operation of this dam impeded juvenile and adult steelhead passage at the site.
Client: Alameda County Resource Conservation District
Waterways staff assisted the NRCS in the fall of 2015 with construction phase services for the implementation of agricultural pond repairs in Alameda County. Our role included construction staking and as-built mapping, construction observation and reporting, and field engineering services.
Client: Ecological Concerns, Inc.
Waterways and ECI have teamed in a design-build capacity to assist the City of Santa Cruz with a multi-phase, multisite design and construction project to offset jurisdictional impacts to wetlands and waters associated with a retrofit of the dam infrastructure at Loch Lomond Reservoirs, a main source of water for the City. The mitigation effort includes three sites: 1) Canham Meadow: wet meadow restoration on a property managed by the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County consisting of a gully that has incised through Canham Meadow, impacting wet meadow function and associated habitat, 2) Newell Creek Habitat Enhancement: includes installation of large wood structures on a portion of Newell Creek downstream of the Loch Lomond dam to enhance habitat for listed steelhead, and 3) Loch Lomond Shoreline Stabilization: consists of rehabilitating shoreline at Loch Lomond that is currently eroding.
Client: City of Santa Cruz Water Department
A management plan was developed for watershed lands owned by the City of Santa Cruz. The purpose of the plan was to outline long-term management strategies for protection of the quality and quantity of the City’s primary surface water sources. Waterways staff and SH+G, completed the hydrology, geomorphology and fisheries section of the report and developed an overall plan to guide future management activities on the City’s properties. Future management actions included the cessation of commercial logging, specific recommendations to reduce point sources of erosion from roads and road crossings, and a detailed map of future road management including the decommissioning of existing roads. Portions of the Plan have already been implemented by the City of Santa Cruz.
Client: Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District
Waterways staff prepared engineering plans and specifications for stabilization of approximately 100 linear feet of stream bank on Corralitos Creek in Santa Cruz County, California. The bioengineered bank stabilization included fabric encapsulated soil lifts contained within a log revetment structure. Logs were selectively harvested by thinning redwoods from an adjacent grove, thus reducing the cost and environmental impact of the project. Our staff performed construction supervision to ensure successful implementation. Revegetation has been successful and the bank now provides quality habitat in addition to controlling bank erosion and sedimentation in the creek.
Client: Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County
Waterways contracted with the Santa Cruz County Resource Conservation District (SCRCD) and the State Coastal Conservancy to provide design services for the improvement of fish passage at a stream crossing along Shingle Mill Gulch. The project site had a 6-foot diameter corrugated metal pipe culvert which provided conveyance beneath a private driveway servicing the Koinonia Conference grounds. Hydraulic analyses of the culvert determined that it was undersized for design flood flows and presented a fish passage impediment to migrating salmonids.
Client: San Lorenzo Valley Water District
Waterways is assisting the San Lorenzo Valley Water District by leading the design team on the Fall Creek fish ladder and diversion screening project. The project involves retrofit of an existing fish ladder and diversion intake structure to comply with current DFW and NOAA fish passage and screening standards. The design lowers existing intake screens and weirs while also adding two additional weirs downstream of the existing ladder to reduce individual jump heights. Phase one was constructed in 2014 and phase two is planned for the summer of 2021.
Client: Horizon Water & Environment, LLC.
Waterways, working as a sub-consultant to Horizon Water and Environment, provided emergency design, permit consultation, and construction support services to the County of San Mateo to allow emergency repairs to proceed at six separate locations where Gazos Creek had undermined Gazos Creek Road during flooding events in 2016- 2017.
Client: Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County
The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD) retained Waterways to prepare a sediment source analysis and action plan for the recently acquired Geyer Quarry property. The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County purchased the property in 2008 to provide protection to a portion of the unique and delicate Sandhill ecosystem that extends from the Bonny Doon through the Scotts Valley area of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Mining activity, road construction, logging, and off‐highway vehicle (OHV) use have exposed steep, denuded hillslopes in many locations throughout the parcel. These eroded areas deliver excessive volumes of sediment to the San Lorenzo River and its key tributaries (in this case Bean Creek and Zayante Creek). The large sediment inputs to the tributary channels negatively impact salmonid habitat.
Client: Sempervirons Fund and Peninsula Open Space Trust
Mill Creek is the largest tributary of San Vicente Creek, in Santa Cruz County, an important stream for steelhead and coho salmon on the central California coast. Mill Creek drains a small, steep watershed containing a localized area of granitic rocks within the highly erosive marine sediments that dominate the Coast Range. Because of this, Mill Creek is an important source of resistant spawning gravel, which is limiting for fish in many watersheds in the central Coast Range. Within the recently-acquired San Vicente Redwoods Preserve, two dams on lower Mill Creek impound gravel and prevent fish passage.
Client: California State Parks- Diablo Vista District
The Mitchell Creek Riparian Restoration and Fish Passage Improvement Project provides for removal of four small dams and the decommissioning of defunct access roads along a reach of Mitchell Creek, within Mount Diablo State Park. The design includes approximately 400 feet of constructed roughened channel to provide fish passage through the grade transition created by the various impoundments. In addition to the fish passage improvements, the project removed aproximately 2,500 cubic yards of impounded sediments from upstream of the site to restore floodplain function and reduce local bank erosion. The design included the installation of large wood elements obtained on site to provide bank stability and enhanced pool development. Waterways provided construction oversight for the project.
Client: Trout Unlimited
Under contract with Trout Unlimited, Waterways led design and construction phase engineering efforts for the removal of a fish passage barrier on San Clemente Creek, a major tributary to the Carmel River. Our design team included Streeter Group (structural engineer) and CMAG Engineering (geotechnical). Work included topographic mapping, hydraulic modeling, concept level design alternatives analysis, and development of final 100% level design drawings. Waterways coordinated with the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County to provide technical support for permitting efforts and then coordinated engineering support during project implementation in the summer of 2020.
Client: Resource Conservation District of Monterey County
Currently undeveloped portions of the North Monterey County High School Campus provide excellent locations for upland and wetland restoration projects that could facilitate educational opportunities. Waterways is supporting Central Coast Wetlands group and the RCD of Monterey County by providing land surveying, preliminary design services, and permit support for proposed nature trails and wetland enhancement projects in support of Red Legged Frog and Santa Cruz Long Toed Salamanders.
Client:City of Watsonville
The CARE project includes an ADA compliant pedestrian and bicycle trail providing community access to through a riparian corridor along the Pajaro River, near its outlet to the Pacific. The trail was designed with a surface that could be easily maintained following periodic inundation and fine sediment deposition within the floodplain through which it traverses. The trail provides an outlet to a scenic overlook on the Pajaro River, as well as to a boat launching ramp.
Client: San Jose State University
Waterways is supporting Central Coast Wetlands Group by leading the design team in development of plans to construct a 30 acre managed wetland to treat irrigation runoff within the Elkhorn Slough Watershed.
Client: Benchmark Resources
The pond construction at Pilarcitos Quarry included two bentonite-lined ponds within the Nuff Creek watershed, each designed to improve habitat for red-legged frogs. Waterways provided planning services to site the ponds, performed topographic and construction surveying, prepared preliminary and final designs, provided permit support, and supervised the construction effort.
Client: Environmental Stewardship and Planning
The Potrero Hills Landfill is in the process of expanding its facilities. The proposed landfill expansion will encompass 170 acres of land and will impact approximately 3 acres of wetland and pond habitat that serve as breeding habitat for the California Tiger Salamander (CTS). Measures to mitigate impacts to CTS include both habitat conservation and wetland enhancements that focus on key species listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).