37 Miles of Flood Protection

Zone 7 manages 37 miles of engineered flood channels across Livermore, Pleasanton, and Dublin. Arroyo Mocho, Arroyo Del Valle, Arroyo Las Positas, Alamo Canal — these channels protect 265,000 residents and every business in the floodplain.

Flood infrastructure doesn't make headlines until it fails. But the math on deferred maintenance is unforgiving: every year we push off investment in these channels, the next rate increase gets larger and the damage from the next major storm gets closer to home.

Sustained investment today keeps costs predictable and protects the communities these channels serve.

I've spent 25 years managing infrastructure systems where deferred maintenance is the most expensive decision you can make. Whether it's a national laboratory's data center or a regional flood control network, the principle is the same — sustained investment costs less than emergency repair, and the people downstream of the failure pay the price.

Homeowners within a parcel of these channels feel this most directly. Businesses in the floodplain carry flood insurance costs that rise when maintenance falls behind. HOA boards in flood-adjacent developments make decisions every year based on the condition of the channel next door.

Flood Management is one of my three priorities for Zone 7. I want to see a board that treats channel maintenance as a commitment to ratepayers, not a line item to defer when budgets get tight.