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About EBMUD

Berryman Reservoir Replacement

The Berryman Reservoir, located on Euclid Avenue in Berkeley, provided drinking water and fire service to central Berkeley (including the downtown area and the University of California) for over 120 years.  The earthen dam forming the reservoir was built in the Hayward fault zone and EBMUD engineering studies revealed that a major seismic event could seriously damage the dam. Based on this risk, EBMUD decided to drain the 15-million gallon reservoir.

EBMUD began the process to drain the reservoir after certifying the Berryman Reservoir Replacement Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in October 1998.  The EIR included the addition of a modern tank inside the reservoir basin, the location of which would depend on detailed seismic analysis. New facilities including a pumping station, a flow control valve station and pipelines were constructed.  The reservoir was drained and permanently removed from service in March 2006.  Homes and businesses in the area currently receive water from Summit Reservoir, located higher in the Berkeley hills. The Summit Reservoir is now being studied and will also undergo changes in the coming years.

EBMUD recently completed geologic fault studies at the Berryman site and has identified a location for a replacement storage tank within the Berryman Reservoir basin. EBMUD held a public meeting on July 21, 2008 to update the neighborhood on the design for the new storage tank at the site.  A second meeting will be scheduled for mid September.  A replacement tank and landscaping layout is attached below.

Upcoming Project Activities  

Environmental Documentation

The Berryman Reservoir Replacement Project Environmental Impact Report (EIR) consists of the Recirculated Draft EIR, comments received during the public comment period, and EBMUD’s responses to comments.  These can be viewed and printed through Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0, a free software.   You may experience problems if you attempt to open these files using an older version of Acrobat Reader.

Recirculated Draft EIR, August 1998 (29 MB)
Final EIR, Responses to Comments, October 1998 (23 MB)

Selected slides of the architectural changes at Berryman Reservoir, September 2008 (36 KB)

Note: For easier reading and less space usage, the blank blue pages have been deleted from the above electronic versions.

For more information on this project, please contact the Project Manager Tom Boardman at tboardma@ebmud.com or Michelle Blackwell at mblackwe@ebmud.com. 

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