East Bay Municipal Utility District and Alamo Stewards Open Pollinator Meadow and Solar Pipeline Telemetry on Aqueduct Trail

Pipeline engineers with the East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) and neighborhood conservation volunteers from the Alamo Improvement Association completed a solar-powered acoustic pipeline leak-detection telemetry station, a 1.4-acre native pollinator meadow, and accessible trailside seating on Sunday afternoon along the Alamo segment of the EBMUD Aqueduct Trail between Stone Valley Road and Las Trampas Road in Alamo. Following the historic right-of-way above the Mokelumne Aqueducts that convey Sierra Nevada snowmelt across Contra Costa County, the scenic multi-use pathway is one of Alamo's favorite walking and jogging corridors.

Inside a low-profile stone-clad subterranean vault beside the Stone Valley Road crossing, EBMUD instrumentation crews installed continuous distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) hydrophones and pressure-transient loggers powered by a 400-watt pole-mounted solar array and lithium battery pack. By analyzing real-time acoustic vibrations traveling along the steel transmission main, the encrypted cellular telemetry unit can pinpoint a pinhole weld seep within three meters long before water ever reaches the surface.

Rather than reseeding the graded pipeline easement with non-native annual ryegrass that requires frequent summer mowing, watershed biologists planted 1.4 acres of deep-rooted California purple needlegrass, narrow-leaf milkweed, sky lupine, and yarrow. The drought-adapted native meadow stabilizes topsoil over the buried aqueduct, reduces wildfire flashy-fuel height by 60 percent, and provides critical late-autumn nectar for migrating monarch butterflies.

Four handcrafted incense-cedar rest benches and two dog waste bag dispensers were also installed along the resurfaced crushed-granite tread. Residents can obtain trail use information and view watershed conservation programs on the EBMUD Trails Official Portal.