THE PONDS PROJECT - Sustainable Conservation

With these issues in mind, project partners moved forward with the clear aim of
developing a “no surprises” permitting process that could provide certainty to farmers,
landowners and regulators alike.
Benefits
Benefits of the project were to include increased summer streamflows and new pond
habitats, reduced regulatory workload, improved relationships between agencies and
landowners, and reduced pressure on agricultural landowners to sell or convert their
farms to residential or commercial development. The project also supported State
mandates to protect coastal agriculture as provided in section 30241 of the California
Coastal Act (all new water storage ponds would have been limited to agricultural
purposes in compliance with Local Coastal Plan requirements).
Sustainable Conservation estimated that once the regulatory process was completed, 10 to
15 ponds, each one designed to contain up to 49 acre-feet of water, could be constructed
in the near-term, and therefore provide up to 735 additional acre-feet/year for instream
summer flows. The San Mateo and Santa Cruz County Farm Bureaus further estimated
that, once the benefits from these initial projects could be demonstrated, an additional 35
to 40 new ponds could be constructed, providing up to 1,960 additional acre-feet/year for
instream summer flows. Even more streamflow benefits were expected to accrue from
farmers’ required participation in NRCS water conservation and irrigation efficiency
programs.
Increased summer and fall streamflows would improve the quantity and quality of coho
salmon and steelhead rearing habitat through enhanced stream riffle and pool depths and
habitat connectivity, decreased water temperatures, and improved production and drift of
benthic macroinvertebrates. Modification and updating of intake structures at existing
diversions would also prevent harm or take of individual coho salmon and steelhead
occurring through entrainment at these structures. In addition to benefiting fish
populations, new pond habitat was expected to benefit the California red-legged frog and
the San Francisco garter snake. All off-stream storage ponds would be designed and
managed to provide quality habitat for both species and avoid the take of individuals
during normal operations and maintenance of agricultural activities.
The project would have implemented a number of range-wide and watershed-specific
recommendations from the CDFG 2004 Recovery Strategy for California Coho Salmon,
including the following components:
Range-wide Recommendations:
RW-I-D-01: Encourage water conservation for existing uses.
RW-I-D-02: Where feasible, use programmatic, cost-efficient approaches and
incentives to working with landowners to permit off-channel
storage ponds.
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