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CWA approves San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project

The San Diego County Water Authority approved the SDCWA's San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project and adopted the environmental Mitigated Negative Declaration for the project along with the Mitigation Monitoring and Reporting Program.

The Aug. 23 CWA board vote also adopted a finding that the project will not have a significant impact on the environment and authorized the filing of a Notice of Determination to proceed with the project. The San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project will create approximately four acres of wetlands and other riparian and upland woodlands which will provide mitigation for impacts from the CWA's future capital improvement projects and from CWA operations and maintenance activities.

The 46-acre San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project site is approximately half a mile west of Interstate 15 and south of State Route 76. The CWA's Second Aqueduct crosses the San Luis Rey River in the area, although the Second Aqueduct itself is excluded from the habitat management area. The CWA acquired the habitat management area in 2005 so that it can be developed into the CWA's North County habitat mitigation site.

In December 2010, the CWA board certified the final Environmental Impact Report for the agency's Natural Community Conservation Plan/Habitat Conservation Plan, and that plan identified the San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project.

However, the environmental analysis of the overall plan did not analyze the specific San Luis Rey Habitat Management Area Habitat Restoration Project in sufficient detail, so a project-specific Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) was necessary.

The wetlands creation will require excavating approximately 43,000 cubic yards of soil and redepositing that soil on site outside the limits of the 100-year flood plain. The environmental analysis evaluated impacts to air quality, agricultural resources, biological resources, cultural resources, greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology, and water quality.

The analysis determined that the project could have significant environmental effects for biological resources but that the proposed design features and mitigation measures will reduce those effects to a level of less than significant, and the effects on the other evaluated areas were determined to be less than significant or not to have any impact.

A draft MND was released on June 8, and the CWA's public review period included a June 28 public hearing although no public speakers provided comments. Two letters were received during the public comment period, and some revisions and clarifications were made based on those letters. A third letter was received 10 days after the close of the public review period, and CWA staff decided to include that letter along with responses in the final MND.

Author Bio

Joe Naiman, Writer

Joe Naiman has been writing for the Village News since 2001

 

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