Searsville Watershed Restoration Project

Searsville dam was constructed in 1892 by Spring Valley Water company and then purchased by Stanford in 1919. It was originally created for regional water supply but the poor quality water wasn’t actually used until purchased by Stanford. The reservoir or lake was in the confluence valley of 4 creeks and has been filling with sediment since its construction. Originally 60 ft deep, it is now nearly 90% filled with sediment and only about 15 ft deep. Notably, a willow riparian habitat has grown on the accumulated sediment at the south end of the reservoir. 

In 2011 Stanford established a Steering Committee meeting of our Stanford experts (faculty and staff) to address the issue of accumulated sediment in a Searsville Alternatives Study. The study was then reviewed by an Advisory Group formed in 2013 to review the alternatives and answer the question "what to do with the dam?" The 27 participants from resource agencies, NGOs, local agencies, watershed community members, and Jasper Ridge docents reviewed the Alternatives Study with the following goals:

1. Protect/enhance JRBP academic teaching/research
2. Contribute to long-term sustainability of Stanford’s water supply
3. Support/enhance ecological health of San Francisquito Creek
4. Do not increase flood risk, and explore opportunities to reduce flood risk
5. Preserve important cultural resources
6. Maintain land use flexibility to support the University’s future needs. 

And in meeting the goals, also consider:

• Addressing the accumulated sediment and future sediment load
• Focus on fiscally feasible actions that fulfill Stanford’s stewardship responsibilities; to the extent that broader objectives are achieved that are shared with others, then share the responsibilities accordingly

From the Advisory Group, the project was developed that would:

• Reestablish natural free-flowing creeks and sediment transport processes
• Establish fish passage through a tunnel to be constructed through the base of the Searsville Dam
• Restore streams and riparian habitats immediately upstream of the dam
• Flush a substantial amount of sediment currently trapped behind the dam
• Replace the surface water diversion and storage capacity through modifications to the downstream San Francisquito Creek Pump Station and Felt Reservoir

Full project overview and latest updates available on the Searsville Watershed Restoration Project Website and the California Department of Water Resources. To receive updates regarding SWRP please sign up here.

The Searsville Watershed Restoration Project (SWRP) is a unique opportunity for Stanford because it is the only dam project of this scale undertaken by a university. It opens the opportunity for multi-disciplinary research, teaching opportunities, and community engagement.

Current watershed-related projects:

• Monitoring of flow and water quality
• Annual monitoring of 2017 low-flow crossing
• A watershed investigation: the impacts of pile burning from terrestrial to aquatic habitats