From the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW), this update from the Fish Restoration Program:
Miner Slough Levee Repair
DWR is proposing to repair the west bank of the Miner Slough levee near the eastern edge of Prospect Island in Solano County. Repair work is expected to take place from August 1, 2014 to November 30, 2014. The project’s “Proposed Mitigated Negative Declaration” and “Notice of Intent to Adopt a Mitigated Negative Declaration” are available here and here respectively. The public was provided with a 30-day public review period for both documents, which closed on March 26, 2014. DWR will evaluate the comments received and determine a schedule for work to be completed. The repair work is needed so that the levees do not breach before essential site preparation for the habitat restoration project is completed.
In preparation for the levee repair work, DWR’s Sacramento Field Division moved two tractor-mounted boom mowers on to Prospect Island in late November to start the levee and slope mowing on 4.7 miles of the Miner Slough and on the north and south cross levees. The highly skilled mower operators cleared the top 15 feet of levee slope and road top, while avoiding disturbance to many large trees, sensitive plants, and survey markers that delineated the 25 levee repair sites. The mowing crew completed the mowing in late January.
Phase two of the levee clearing involved hiring a rancher who specializes in managing wildlands vegetation with livestock to move in a goat herd to graze the levee slopes beyond the reach of the boom mowing. Ecosystem Concepts Inc., headquartered in Dixon, CA, moved in 1,200 goats and a full time on-site herder on February 18th and will complete the grazing by early April.
Prospect Island Tidal Habitat Restoration Project, Draft Environmental Impact Report Update
Compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act continues as DWR, CDFW, and its consultants prepare the Prospect Island Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) that will cover the range of alternatives for the project and consider stakeholder input received during the Spring 2013 scoping period. Currently, FRP staff are in the process of analyzing alternatives as part of the environmental review process and writing the DEIR. We are on schedule to have it completed and available for a 45-day public comment period in early 2015. For more information, a fact sheet on the Prospect Island Tidal Habitat Restoration Project is available here.
Annual Report Available
DWR and CDFW FRP staff recently presented the program’s Annual Report for 2010 – 2013. The Report meets the reporting requirements set forth in Section I in the FRP Agreement. It includes: financial reporting; the progress of each project towards meeting the intended restoration goals; and the current status, barriers, and relative accrued benefits of those projects. Please click here to read this 19-page Report.
Prospect Island Restoration Site Characterization and Groundwater Study
This comprehensive, multi-year study by engineering geologists in DWR’s North Central Regional Office analyzed geology and groundwater conditions on Prospect and Ryer Islands, and surface water levels on Prospect Island and in Miner Slough and the Sacramento River Deep Water Ship Channel. Results indicate that Miner Slough is the dominant hydrologic feature in the study area and seepage on Ryer Island is primarily from Miner Slough and not from Prospect Island. The final report is available here.
For more information:
- Email: frpa@water.ca.gov
- Website: Visit FRPA on the web
FRP is a joint effort between DWR and CDFW to implement habitat restoration in partial mitigation for the State Water Project’s (SWP) impacts on sensitive fish species in the Delta. These efforts are being undertaken to satisfy requirements of recent Biological Opinions for SWP and Central Valley Project (CVP) operations. FRP is also intended to address the habitat restoration requirements of the CDFW Longfin Smelt Incidental Take Permit (ITP) for SWP Delta operations.
