Environmental Review Process Update

As mentioned in the previous environmental review process update and discussed at the public meeting held on June 6, 2024, Valley Water has been working expeditiously to move the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project forward, with the goal to begin construction in April 2026. Valley Water recently met with the project Board of Consultants (BOC), which reviews the project and makes recommendations to FERC to discuss updated design plans and provides construction sequencing. In response to that meeting and BOC recommendations, Valley Water now proposes to make certain construction changes such as extending work hours, adding some weekend days, and to begin work on certain project components sooner. These proposed changes would allow Valley Water to construct planned project components within the planned construction timeline before the wet season each year to improve our ability to complete this important health and safety project on schedule.

Because these construction changes would cause additional impacts, Valley Water has decided to revise and partially recirculate the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to update project impacts on air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and aesthetics, and allow additional public comment on the construction changes and updated impact analyses. While taking this approach would extend Valley Water’s certification of the Final EIR from September 2024 to February 2025, this would not delay the overall project construction schedule that is planned to begin in spring 2026.

In accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act Guidelines, Valley Water has released the Partially Recirculated Draft EIR with an updated project description, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, noise, and aesthetics sections, together with two revised technical appendices, for additional public comment before finalizing the document. The Partially Recirculated Draft EIR is available for public review on Monday, August 5, 2024, for a 45-day public review period. The Notice of Availability and Partially Recirculated Draft EIR can be accessed here: https://www.valleywater.org/public-review-documents. (Please note there has been a minor correction to the NOA that was mailed and published in the newspaper the week of July 29th.)

Separately, Valley Water is considering making other changes to the project description and environmentally superior alternative, including changes to post-construction flows and certain conservation measures to further reduce fisheries impacts, in response to comments and recommendations from regulatory agencies such as National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). These other project description changes, which also include other minor clarifications and additions, would appear in the Final EIR.