48 Miles of Contra Costa Canal Are Set to Change Hands

In the first hour after sunrise, the Contra Costa Canal Trail through Pleasant Hill belongs mostly to bike commuters and dog walkers, with long shadows laid across the asphalt. The paved path runs flat between a chain-link fence and the back fences of ranch-house yards. Past the chain-link, the canal slides along its concrete channel toward Martinez, and on a clear morning Mount Diablo fills the end of the view.

On September 2, 2026, the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD) filed a Notice of Exemption with the state for the transfer of that canal, roughly 48 miles of the Contra Costa Canal System, from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to the district. The filing authorizes no construction and no operational change, and the East Bay Regional Park District still runs the paved trail on the canal bank.

Who runs the trail, and what changes on paper

The transfer will change who holds the deed, while the agencies running the canal and the trail stay the same. CCWD has operated and maintained the canal since 1972 under an agreement with Reclamation and finished repaying its construction cost in 2010, according to a 2018 Senate committee report. The repayment contract called for title to pass to the district once Congress signed off, which it did in Section 8302 of the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act in March 2019.

The park district, which built the trail together with CCWD and Reclamation, describes it on its trail page as a paved route for bikes, e-bikes, runners, horses and dogs, open 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. When the transfer bill was introduced, then General Manager Robert Doyle said in the Senate announcement that it “ensures the existing recreation agreement for Contra Loma Regional Park and Contra Costa Canal Trail continues and is recognized in the legislation.”

The notice cites the CEQA Guidelines section for administrative actions with no physical effect, so this step came without an environmental study.

Why the district wanted the deed

The long-range reason is safety. The Senate announcement said 82 people had drowned in the canal since it began operating and that the district planned to enclose it after the transfer. The 2018 Senate report cited a planned $650 million project to convert the open main canal to closed pipe.

None of that is in the September 2 filing. The park district’s alerts page notes that CCWD is doing annual maintenance along the trail throughout 2026 and that brief closures may be needed.

The neighborhoods on the other side of the fence

In our data, the trail shows up most on our Walnut Creek neighborhood rankings. Rancho San Miguel, which our review calls the East Bay’s largest Eichler tract, has more than 375 Eichler homes south of Ygnacio Valley Road, between the Contra Costa Canal Trail and San Antonio Drive. It scores 4.0 overall and 3.6 on amenities, and its median sale price was about $1.62 million in August 2026.

The Woodlands, a compact northeast Walnut Creek neighborhood bounded by the canal, Oak Grove Road and Ygnacio Valley Road, scores 3.9 overall and 3.7 on amenities, with an August 2026 median of about $1.41 million. Larkey Park, north of downtown, has the trail crossing right through it. It scores 3.1 overall and 3.4 on amenities, and its median was about $1.37 million in August 2026, up from about $1.19 million in July.

In Pleasant Hill, Grayson Creek carries “Canal Trail” as a keyword on our Pleasant Hill neighborhood rankings and scores 3.5 overall and 3.6 on amenities. Two more Walnut Creek neighborhoods, Diablo Shadows (4.3 overall) and Brooktree (4.0), sit on the Ygnacio Canal Trail, a separate canal path that connects to the main trail, so we left them out of the count above.

Concord has 6.2 of the trail’s 13.55 miles, and none of our 42 Concord neighborhood reviews mentions it.

Living beside the trail

The trail gives these neighborhoods a flat, car-free route to Heather Farm, Larkey Park, Las Juntas Park and Lime Ridge.

Backing directly onto the trail has a trade-off too. The fence line is public on one side, and district maintenance can close a stretch for a day. The park district has posted a full-day closure of the Pleasant Hill stretch between Oak Park Boulevard and Hoover Avenue for Wednesday, September 16, 2026, for PG&E pole work.

The park district’s mileage report maps the paved trail in 11 segments, from Muir Road near Martinez to Willow Pass Road in Concord.

Sources

• CEQAnet, Notice of Exemption SCH 2026090152, Contra Costa Water District, received September 2, 2026
• East Bay Regional Park District, Contra Costa Canal Regional Trail
• East Bay Regional Park District, trail mileage report
• East Bay Regional Park District, Alerts and Closures
• Senate Report 115-359, Contra Costa Canal Transfer Act
• Office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Contra Costa Canal transfer bill announcement
• Houseberry neighborhood and ranking pages, accessed September 10, 2026