Wednesday December 4, 2024
Tri City Voice —
A collective cheer is in the air as many environmentalists, wildlife enthusiasts, Alameda County officials and residents celebrate news that funding to remove the last man-made barrier to fish passage in Alameda Creek has been secured.
Claire Buchanan, Bay Area Senior Project Manager for California Trout (CalTrout), a non-profit agency focused on ensuring healthy waters and resilient fish populations in the state, said a new $4.3 million grant will be used to lower a PG&E gas pipeline that spans the creek about 12 miles upstream from the creek’s terminus into the bay. Known as the Sunol Valley Fish Passage Project, it is the last of 16 fish passage projects in the Alameda Creek watershed completed in the last 20 years.
Urbanization in the lower 12 miles of the creek in the Fremont area has choked portions, preventing native Chinook salmon and steelhead from traveling to upstream watersheds to spawn. Previous large fish passage projects on the creek include the installation of fish ladders at the Fremont BART station weir and at the inflatable bladder dams near Niles, both done by the Alameda County Water District (ACWD).