PUC hears warnings that Calaveras Dam rebuild risks steelhead restoration and schedule

At the June 24 meeting of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, watershed advocates and commission staff clashed over the environmental and schedule implications of the Water System Improvement Program’s Calaveras Dam project. Jeff Miller, director of the Alameda Creek Alliance, told commissioners that the city’s proposed work 'is a nonstarter' for fish restoration and accused the PUC of operating dams that divert about 86 percent of tributary flows and that have 'operated in violation of state wildlife protection laws.'

Julie Labonte, director of the Water System Improvement Program (WSIP), told the commission the quarterly report shows the local program is tracking ahead of plan while several regional projects, including Calaveras, face environmental-review delays that create schedule variances. Labonte said performance indices and earned-value metrics indicate many local projects are ahead and that program-level reporting had been restructured to provide more granular, project-level data.

Miller urged the commission to incorporate steelhead restoration into the Calaveras rebuild and warned that failing to provide adequate downstream flows would jeopardize the city’s relations with watershed groups and the project’s schedule and budget. 'If you want conflict over Calaveras, you’re headed in the right direction,' Miller said.

Commissioners pressed staff to clarify the causes and consequences of delays. One commissioner cited earlier staff briefings that linked PEIR (Program Environmental Impact Report) timing to critical-path risk and asked whether the current forecast still threatened water rights or critical delivery dates. Labonte and other staff said a recent quarter’s project-specific delays have pushed some individual project forecasts; they said the new PEIR certification date (reported as shifted later in the quarter) was not, at present, the sole driver of critical-path slippage but acknowledged several projects now face schedule variance due to environmental review and other project-level issues.

Labonte said the WSIP team has reorganized reporting (new work breakdown structure and Primavera migration) to surface variances earlier, and that the program’s earned-value curve remains above actual expenditures — a sign, she said, that work accomplished is tracking well against planned value even when actual expenditures exceed plan. She told commissioners the program had completed a project-specific EIR for the New Crystal Springs Bypass Tunnel and was continuing environmental-permitting work across regional projects.

Commissioners asked staff to report back at a future meeting with a focused summary of the 'crunch points' between staff’s internal project forecasts and the concerns raised by Mr. Miller and the Alameda Creek Working Group. A commissioner also requested a discrete update on whether any delay could imperil regulatory deadlines or rights; staff offered to brief the commission in the next meeting or, if needed, in executive session.

The exchange combined technical program-control data — SPI/CPI and earned-value curves — with advocacy warning about fish passage and streamflows. Commissioners instructed staff to follow up and promised to include a specific Calaveras/Alameda Creek update on a future agenda.