LIVERMORE — The Zone 7 Water Agency's board of directors has voted unanimously to approve sending a letter to BART stating its concerns and opposition to BART extension routes to Livermore that cut through the Chain of Lakes area.

The Chain of Lakes is composed of rock quarries that will become Zone 7 water storage basins that separate Livermore and Pleasanton. BART released a draft environmental report Nov. 6 that laid out nine possible alternatives to extend BART from the Dublin-Pleasanton station to points in Livermore. Five proposed routes run through the lakes.

Among the concerns about an extension route that cuts through the Chain of Lakes include slope stability, future Zone 7 facilities planned for the area and the absence from the report that acknowledges Zone 7's current and future ownership of the property along the Chain of Lakes alignments.

Zone 7 currently owns one of the lakes, Cope Lake, and is expected to take possession of another in 2014. Both lakes could potentially be affected by a BART extension. The other eight lakes are scheduled to be turned over to Zone 7 by 2030.

— Robert Jordan