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City of Pleasanton <br />Final Water Supply Assessment <br />Stoneridge Drive Specific Plan Amendment and Staples Ranch Project <br />4.0 Water Agency Background <br />future. The GMP contains comprehensive discussions of the Main Basin along with groundwater <br />management and resource planning. Basin descriptions were excerpted from Chapter 3 of Zone 7's <br />GMP: <br />iHydrogeology <br />Structural uplift of the entire Coast Ranges occurred during the late middle Pliocene and <br />Pleistocene, causing extensive folding and faulting of the region. The Livermore Valley, a <br />structural valley, formed by a faulted asymmetric syncline, was created as a result of <br />downwarping of the Miocene Pliocene sandstones and conglomerates between the westem <br />bordering Calaveras Fault and the eastem bordering Greenville Fault. Continued deposition, <br />uplift, and faulting have led to the current Uvermore Valley stratigraphy. The valley is partially <br />filled with Pleistocene Holocene age (recent alluvium) alluvial fan, stream and lake deposits, <br />which range in thickness from a few feet along the margins to nearly 400 (and possibly 800) <br />feet in the west central portion. The alluvium consists of unconsolidated gravel, sand, silt, and <br />clay. The southern region of the Livermore Valley, the most important groundwater recharge <br />area, consists mainly of sand and gravel that was deposited by the ancestral and present <br />Arroyo Valle and Arroyo Mocho. The eastem and northem regions of the valley contain <br />thinner deposits and consist of altemating layers of gravel, sand, silt, and clay that are <br />laterally discontinuous and resulted from the deposition of smaller streams. The westem <br />region of the valley has extensive gravel layers alternating with thick day beds totaling <br />approximately 400 feet in thickness. The altemation of sand/gravel layers and silt/day layers <br />form the basic aquifers for the area. <br />In general, multiple aquifers are recognized in the alluvium of the Livermore Valley. The <br />alluvium increases in thickness from east to west across the basin and thins both north and <br />south at its boundaries. The alluvium also thickens from north to south to the central portion of <br />the groundwater basin and then thins from the center toward the south. Although the upper <br />portions of the alluvium appear to be very thick and continuous in the middle of the basin, the <br />deeper aquifers are often discontinuous and/or poorly interconnected. <br />The Livermore Formation consists of beds of dayey gravels and sands, silt, and clay that are <br />unconsolidated to semi- consolidated and estimated to be 4,000 feet thick in the southem and <br />westem portion of the basin. These sediments display lower yields in the upland areas. <br />Groundwater from this formation is sodium bicarbonate in nature and of moderately good <br />quality. Minor amounts of groundwater are believed to move along the strike of the beds to the <br />northwest and enter the Main Basin (see detailed description below) at the southern portions <br />of the Bernal and Amador sub basins. The Tassajara and Green Valley Formations, located in <br />uplands north of the valley, are roughly Pliocene in age and were deposited under both <br />brackish and freshwater conditions. They basically consist of sandstone, tuffaceous <br />sandstone/siltstone, conglomerate, shale, and limestone. Water movement from these <br />formations to the Main Basin is precluded by either structural alteration where beds dip away <br />from the general groundwater flow of the valley or by nonwater bearing stringers (tuff and day <br />partides). The near vertical structural dip of the Tassajara and Green Valley formations is <br />believed to prevent the commingling of waters among these formations and the alluvium, <br />essentially cutting this water off from the groundwater basin. Groundwater from these <br />formations is sodium bicarbonate in nature and of moderately good quality. <br />Main Basin <br />The groundwater basin has been divided into two major parts based on importance. For the <br />past 20 years the term Main Basin has been used for that portion of the groundwater basin <br />covering the 17,000 acres that contain the highest-yielding aquifers and best quality water <br />within the Livermore- Amador Valley Groundwater Basin. The less important area is called the <br />fringe basin. <br />The Main Basin is located in the central and southwestern portion of the groundwater basin. <br />This area has a much larger capacity than the surrounding areas to store and convey <br />groundwater, particularly in the deeper or lower aquifer zones located below the Main Basin.. <br />10 Department of Water Resources, Bulletin 118 Updated January 20, 2008. <br />PiPro3s -YYP Qi,A.11/2.01 Maples Ranch VWAIRnaFYwwekdo <br />5 -7 <br />