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Critical moment for Sunol and Zone 7
Sunol is at the bottom of the Livermore Valley natural waterways and floodplain system. Zone 7 is very proud of its 37 miles of an improved, routinely managed upstream flood control system, and I am proud of the public trails as recreational elements added for public benefit and expanded during my board tenure.
The improved channel stops abruptly at the Bernal Bridge in Pleasanton, Zone 7 has spent resources on well abandonment on the Marilyn Kane Park and close to the Verona bridge due to aged litigation as I recall, but I don’t believe Zone 7 actively maintains much if anything below Verona Bridge.
I was on the channel from Sunol to Niles a week ago on the historical railroad and the canopy from trees and bushes is heavy. We drove one on Foothill and the canopy from Sunol to Verona and Castlewood is very heavy.
Is it the responsibility of the appropriate flood control agency to manage overgrowth, sedimentation and dangerous items in the stream bed? Zone 7 has led or maintained comparable to the 37 miles of improved channel.
I would argue that population growth in the Valley and the new rooftops, roads and impervious surfaces add to the new flash-flood dilemma.
Some population numbers may offer an explanation since the 1955 flood and the building of Del Valle: 6,745 people recorded living in Pleasanton, Livermore, Dublin and Sunol in 1950, compared to 239,271 today.
I have asked Zone 7 staff and the board for information on financial project involvement over the past several decades on the Sunol Reach south of the Bernal Bridge, and have not received a response to date.
I tend to believe Zone 7 may be strategically ignoring me in hopes I will go away!
If Zone 7 and Alameda County were to take the lead in improving flood risk and public safety, this reach and other large easement holders and property owners along the reach might come to the table and find a multi-purpose public good solution.
SFPUC, EBRPD, two railroads, Alameda County Public Works, Department of Fish & Game: A strong governmental leader is needed, and I don’t see one in the mix at the moment.
– Dick Quigley, former Zone 7 director
Plutonium hearing
Tri-Valley residents have a rare opportunity to stem plutonium increases locally and impact nuclear weapons policy nationally at an upcoming public hearing.
The National Nuclear Security Administration plans to produce 80 or more plutonium bomb cores, called pits, each year to place inside new nuclear warheads.
NNSA wants to turn the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina into industrial scale pit production sites.
Locally, the NNSA proposes to increase plutonium experiments and testing at Livermore Lab. This includes the Lab’s main plutonium facility and its “shake and bake” facility where plutonium bomb cores and materials undergo multiple tests.
Plutonium accidents and releases have occurred at Livermore Lab. Plutonium has been found in soils near Livermore Lab’s main plutonium facility, in soils near the Lab’s attorneys’ offices, in an offsite air monitor to the east of the Lab, and in nearby parks, including Big Trees Park to the west of the Lab. Weapons grade plutonium has a radioactive half-life of more than 24,000 years.
This is not about science, this is about new nuclear warheads and whether our air, land, water and health may be affected by future releases.
At issue, too, is the transport of plutonium in trucks between the Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico and Livermore Lab. And, there is waste. NNSA says the transuranic wastes will be trucked to Carlsbad, but the state of New Mexico disagrees.
Due to litigation brought by the nonprofit Tri-Valley CAREs and colleagues, NNSA is conducting a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on its pit production plans.
The Tri-Valley hearing is Tuesday, May 12. Following a half-hour open house, the hearing will be from 5:30-8 p.m. at the Garre Vineyard Winery, Santa Rosa Room, 7986 Tesla Road, Livermore.
For more information, visit www.trivalleycares.org or https://pitpeis.com/
– Marylia Kelley
Dangerous driving
Save lives by driving safely. Specifically, going 25 miles per hour in residential zones prevents lethal collisions. Not only do you have more time to react and break if a kid runs onto the road after a ball, but also, the human body is more likely to survive if you’re not speeding and smashing someone with more kinetic energy.
Even nudging your vehicle up to 30 mph will make any accidental collision more than twice as likely to kill.
According to a meta-analysis published in 2019, in the journal of Accident Analysis & Prevention, the mortality rates based on speed are: 13% at 25 mph, 29% at 31 mph, and 59% at 37 mph.
So I urge Livermore residents to drive 25 mph in residential zones. It makes the city safer for everyone, and, hey, for pets too. Arriving a few seconds sooner is not worth the potential for life-changing grief. Also, of course, pull over before texting.
– Alan Marling
No on Bay Area transit ballot measure
I’ve commuted on Bay Area rail for years — ACE Rail to the South Bay when I worked there. I understand what functioning regional transit means for communities like Pleasanton. Also, grew up in New Delhi during India’s license raj — when government bureaucracies protected themselves at taxpayers’ expense.
I recognize what I’m seeing at BART. Which is why, as a Pleasanton resident, I’m voting No in November — and why I think Pleasanton voters should too.
In 2024, BART paid a single janitor $271,151. Its own inspector general flagged 32 accountability failures. Management implemented zero of them. The timekeeping system auditors needed to investigate overtime was quietly decommissioned — after auditors requested access.
This isn’t a funding problem. It’s a management problem.
In 2016, Pleasanton voters passed Measure RR — a $3.5 billion bond — after being assured the financial problems were being addressed. Ten years later, BART is back asking for more. And this time they’ve added a threat: vote Yes or we close your station.
That threat is a pressure tactic, not a plan. Dublin-Pleasanton station had nearly a million exits last year. BART cannot close it without destroying Blue Line ridership systemwide. The city of Pleasanton has said publicly that BART access is why businesses locate here. BART knows that.
I’m not anti-transit. I’m anti-blank check. Consider who’s watching your money. BART’s nine-member board — responsible for a $2.8 billion annual budget — is legally capped at $7,200 a year in compensation. That’s who oversees the janitor making $271,151. The people qualified to fix this can’t afford to run.
Voting No in November sends one message: fix it first, then ask Pleasanton for money. That’s not asking too much.
– Jagjit Singh Choudhary
The tax revolt is back
We lost Prop 13 for the children (Props 58 and 193).
1. FiXProp19 to Save Our Children’s Future (by Repeal The Death Tax): Sign to keep portability but remove the “Unaffordable Property Tax Reassessment” from Prop 19 reinstating Propositions 58 and 193.
2. Reclaim Voters’ Rights – Sign to get back our rights to place citizen’s initiatives, referendums and vetoes on any ballot to protect ourselves.
Join the Tax Revolt in 2026 as the cost of living is “Too Damn High!” Insurance is up, utilities are up, maintenance costs are up … Let’s try to reduce a significant expense … Property tax. Learn more: ForCalifornians.com.
– Gina Tse-Louie
