The Alameda Creek watershed covers an area of 633 square miles and once supported a steelhead trout fishery. Steelhead trout are anadromous fish, living out their adult lives in the ocean and migrating up fresh water streams and rivers to spawn and rear their young. Modifications to the Alameda Creek streambed and urbanization of the surrounding land, however, eliminated spawning areas and made it impossible for steelhead to migrate upstream. As a result, steelhead have been absent from Alameda Creek and its tributaries for several decades.

ACWD received $2.1 million from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to initiate four projects that will improve steelhead migration in Alameda Creek. Through the 2005 San Francisco Bay Salmonid Habitat Restoration Fund, NFWF and DWR has help to fund other projects that will benefit salmon and steelhead trout in central and southern San Francisco Bay watersheds.

ACWD’s four projects are part of a much larger effort to restore steelhead in the Alameda Creek watershed. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, Zone 7 Water Agency, East Bay Regional Park District, and Alameda County Public Works Agency are all involved in projects that will make Alameda Creek a more fish-friendly waterway.

		Rubber Dam 2 Decommissioning and Foundation Modification Project
		This project is located in the City of Fremont within the Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel adjacent to the Quarry Lakes Regional Recreational Area. This project will consist of: 1. Removal of the fabric portion of the District's Rubber Dam #2. 2. Removal of a section of the dam's foundation to allow for fish passage under low flow conditions.

		Alameda Creek Pipeline No. 1 Fish Screen
		This project is located in the City of Fremont along the north side of the Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel between Mission Boulevard and the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge. The project, completed in March 2008, consists of the installation of a fish screen facility to include multiple self-cleaning cylindrical fish screens, fencing, control panel and electrical boxes, and a section of new pipe to connect the fish screens' pipe manifold to the existing Alameda Creek Pipeline No. 1 diversion pipe. The screens will prevent juvenile steelhead trout from being carried into the diversion pipeline and adjacent groundwater recharge pond.

		Bunting Pond Fish Screen
		This project is located in the City of Fremont along the South side of the Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel (ACFCC) between the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge and Alameda Water District Rubber Dam No. 3.   The project construction will include modification of the existing water diversion intake and installation of a fish screen, fencing, control panel and trail modification. The fish screen system will consist of one self-cleaning cylindrical screen with a track system on a concrete pad along the bank of the ACFCC. The screen system and diversion intake will be used to divert water from Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel to Bunting Pond.

		Rubber Dam No. 1 and BART Weir Fish Project Passage
		This is a joint project between the Alameda County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, and ACWD. The project is located in the City of Fremont within the Alameda Creek Flood Control Channel at the flood control drop structure (BART weir) adjacent to the Quarry Lakes Regional Recreation Area. This project will consist of design and installation of a fish ladder along the northern embankment over ACWD’s Rubber Dam No. 1 and BART weir.