From the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board:
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) will consider an amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay Basin (Basin Plan) during a public hearing on April 11, 2018.
Specifically, the Water Board will consider:
1. Establishing Site-Specific Objectives and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for Dissolved Oxygen in Suisun Marsh and an Implementation Plan;
2. Addressing Mercury Impairment by Including Suisun Marsh Among the Water Bodies Addressed by the San Francisco Bay Mercury TMDL.
The Board’s Basin Planning Program is considered a certified regulatory program, which means that the Board is exempt from the requirement to prepare an environmental impact report for basin planning activities under the California Environmental Quality Act. (Pub. Res. Code, § 21080.5; Cal. Code Regs., tit. 14, § 15251(g).) The Board’s environmental review of the proposed Basin Plan Amendment is instead contained in a draft Staff Report, which is considered to be part of the “substitute environmental documentation” or “SED”.
The public hearing to adopt the proposed amendment and draft SED will be held as follows:
DATE: April 11, 2018
TIME: 9:00 a.m. (approximate)
LOCATION: Elihu M. Harris State Building
First Floor Auditorium
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612
The proposed Basin Plan amendment and supporting staff report, including the draft SED, will be available online beginning January 12, 2018 at: https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/water_issues/programs/TMDLs/suisunmarshtmdl.shtml#public_process
SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS: The 45-day public comment period for the proposed amendment and SED begins on January 12, 2018. Comment letters must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday February 28, 2018. Please send all written comments to the staff contact identified above. Additionally, all evidence, testimony, and exhibits to be offered at the hearing must be submitted in writing by this date to the above staff contact. Non-evidentiary policy statements to be made at the hearing need not be submitted in advance.
The Water Board will receive oral public testimony on the proposed amendment at the hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Water Board will consider adoption of the proposed Basin Plan amendment, including changes to the proposed amendment that are consistent with the general purpose of the proposed amendment and are a logical outgrowth of the evidence and testimony received. Alternatively, in response to written comments and testimony received, the Water Board may recommend that staff make changes to the proposed amendment to be presented for its consideration at a subsequent hearing.
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