[Federal Register: October 29, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 209)]
[Notices]
[Page 66780-66781]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr29oc10-94]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Reclamation
Fish and Wildlife Service
Suisun Marsh Habitat Management, Preservation, and Restoration
Plan, California
AGENCIES: Bureau of Reclamation and Fish and Wildlife, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of availability of draft environmental impact statement/
environmental impact report (EIS/EIR) and notice of public meetings.
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SUMMARY: The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the Fish and
Wildlife Service (Service), as the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA) Federal joint lead agencies, and the State of California
Department of Fish and Game (DFG), acting as the California
Environmental Quality Act State lead agency, have made available for
public review and comment the Suisun Marsh Habitat Management,
Preservation, and Restoration Plan (SMP) Draft EIS/EIR. The SMP is a
comprehensive 30-year plan designed to address various conflicts
regarding use of resources within approximately 51,000 acres of the
Suisun Marsh (Marsh), with the focus on achieving an acceptable multi-
stakeholder approach to the restoration of tidal wetlands and the
enhancement of managed wetlands and their functions.
DATES: Written comments on the Draft EIS/EIR must be received by 5 p.m.
Pacific time on December 28, 2010.
Two public meetings have been scheduled to receive written comments
regarding environmental effects:
Thursday, November 18, 2010, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., Suisun
City, CA.
Thursday, November 18, 2010, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Benicia,
CA.
ADDRESSES: Send any written comments on the Draft EIS/EIR to Ms. Becky
Victorine, Bureau of Reclamation, 2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, CA
95825; or e-mail to rvictorine@usbr.gov.
The public meetings will be held at the following locations:
Suisun City, CA at Rush Ranch, 3521 Grizzly Island Road,
Suisun City, CA 94585.
Benicia, CA at Benicia Public Library, 150 East L Street,
Benicia, CA 94510.
The Draft EIS/EIR is accessible at the following Web site: http://
www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=781. Copies may
also be requested from Ms. Becky Victorine, at the above addresses or
at 916-978-5035.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Becky Victorine, Bureau of
Reclamation, 916-978-5035, rvictorine@usbr.gov, or Ms. Cay Goude, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, 916-414-6600, cay_goude@fws.gov.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Draft EIS/EIR documents the direct,
indirect, and cumulative effects to the physical, biological, and
socioeconomic environment that may result from implementing the SMP
alternatives.
As the largest contiguous brackish water marsh remaining on the
west coast of North America, the Marsh is a critical part of the San
Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta) estuary
ecosystem. The values of the Marsh have been recognized as important,
and several agencies have been involved in the area's protection since
the mid-1970s. In 2001, the principal Federal, State, and local
agencies that have jurisdiction or interest in the Marsh directed the
formation of a charter group to develop
[[Page 66781]]
a plan for Suisun Marsh that would balance the needs of the California
Bay-Delta Program (CALFED), the Suisun Marsh Preservation Agreement,
and other plans by protecting and enhancing existing land uses and
existing waterfowl and wildlife values, including those associated with
the Pacific Flyway, endangered species, and State and Federal water
project supply quality. A subset of this charter group has
collaboratively prepared the SMP Draft EIS/EIR. The principal agencies
include the Service, Reclamation, National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS), DFG, State of California Department of Water Resources, Suisun
Resource Conservation District, and the California Bay-Delta Authority.
When the EIS/EIR is finalized, each principal agency will use it to
implement particular actions described and analyzed in the document
that would contribute to the overall implementation of the SMP. NMFS
and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are cooperating agencies in
accordance with NEPA.
Background
The historical diking of tidal wetlands resulted in a loss of
habitat for many species, including some listed as threatened or
endangered. However, managed wetlands provide important habitats for
numerous wetland species, migratory birds, and waterfowl; support
existing wildlife populations; and are vital to the heritage of hunting
in Suisun Marsh. Protecting the ecological values of both the
historical tidal wetland habitat and the current managed wetland
habitat is vital to ensure stability of the many species that depend on
each of these wetland types. Managed wetlands, tidal wetlands, and
uplands, whether publicly or privately owned, provide important
wetlands for migratory waterfowl and other resident and migratory
wetland-dependent species and opportunities for hunting, fishing, bird
watching, and other recreational activities. There is a need to
maintain these opportunities as well as improve public stewardship of
the Marsh to ensure that the implementation of restoration and managed
wetland activities is understood and valued for both public and private
land uses. Current restrictions regarding levee maintenance activities
in the Marsh have forced maintenance to be deferred on some exterior
levees, increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding. Multiple factors
contribute to the degradation of water quality in the Marsh, and
improvement of water quality and water quality management practices is
needed to benefit the ecological processes for all habitats, including
managed and tidal wetlands. Given these needs, the SMP is a
comprehensive plan designed to address the various conflicts regarding
use of Marsh resources, with the focus on achieving an acceptable
multi-stakeholder approach to the restoration of tidal wetlands and the
enhancement of managed wetlands and their functions. The SMP is
intended to guide near-term and future actions related to restoration
of tidal wetlands and managed wetland activities in the Marsh.
Preferred Alternative
All action alternatives of the SMP include the same basic
components, which provide a framework for how restoration and managed
wetland activities would be implemented. The alternatives differ in the
amount of acreage of restored tidal wetlands and remaining managed
wetlands subject to managed wetland activities. Restoration of tidal
wetlands would help to achieve the restoration goals established for
the Marsh by the CALFED Ecosystem Restoration Program Plan, San
Francisco Bay Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project, and the Service's
Draft Recovery Plan for Tidal Marsh Ecosystems of Northern and Central
California. Restoration of tidal wetlands would be implemented over the
30-year SMP timeframe, and benefits from individual projects would
change as elevations rise due to sediment accretion, vegetation becomes
established, and vegetation communities shift over time from low marsh
to high marsh condition.
Managed wetlands provide valuable habitat for a variety of non-
waterfowl birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. The intended
outcomes of the managed wetlands activities described in the Draft EIS/
EIR are to maintain and improve habitat conditions and minimize or
avoid adverse effects of wetland operations. Most of these activities
are already occurring in the Marsh; however, some of the current
activities would be modified, and some new activities would be
conducted, as described in detail in the Draft EIS/EIR.
The preferred alternative identified in the Draft EIS/EIR includes
restoring 5,000 to 7,000 acres in the Marsh to fully functioning, self-
sustaining tidal wetland and protecting and enhancing existing tidal
wetland acreage; and improving the remaining 44,000 to 46,000 acres of
managed wetlands, levee stability, and flood and drain capabilities, as
previously identified in the 2007 CALFED Programmatic Record of
Decision.
Special Assistance for Public Meetings
If special assistance is required to participate in the public
meetings, please contact Becky Victorine at 916-978-5035, TDD 916-978-
5608, or via e-mail at rvictorine@usbr.gov. Please notify Ms. Victorine
as far in advance as possible to enable Reclamation to secure the
needed services. If a request cannot be honored, the requestor will be
notified. A telephone device for the hearing impaired (TDD) is
available at 916-978-5608.
Public Disclosure
Before including your name, address, phone number, e-mail address,
or other personal identifying information in your comment, you should
be aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Dated: May 4, 2010.
Pablo R. Arroyave,
Deputy Regional Director, Mid-Pacific Region, U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation.
Dated: May 17, 2010.
Alexandra Pitts,
Assistant Regional Director of External Affairs, Pacific Southwest
Region, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
[FR Doc. 2010-27364 Filed 10-28-10; 8:45 am]
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