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Anadromous Salmonid Habitat Conservation Plan

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Project Overview

The Anadromous Salmonid Habitat Conservation Plan (ASHCP) provides coverage for "take" of coho and steelhead when conducting otherwise legal activities. "Take" is defined under the California Endangered Species Act as to hunt, pursue, catch, capture or kill a protected species or attempt any of these actions, and is defined under the Federal Endangered Species Act as to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.

The City provides a range of essential public services for its citizens and visitors, including diversion, treatment, and distribution of water; construction, operation, and maintenance of water diversion and treatment facilities; construction and maintenance of roads; waste management activities; flood control and stormwater management; and operation and maintenance of recreation and open spaces. The City has determined that some of the activities it undertakes to provide these services may adversely affect the life history and habitat of federally threatened steelhead and state and federally endangered coho. As such, the City is proposing to implement the ASHCP, which provides a strategy for contributing to the recovery of steelhead and coho while avoiding, minimizing, and mitigating potential impacts from these activities on those species.

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 Picture: Young-of-the-year coho salmon (left) and steelhead trout (right) in Liddell Creek, Santa Cruz, CA. Picture courtesy of Jessica Martinez - McKinney. 

 The following table summarizes the activities that will be covered under the Habitat Conservation Plan:

Summary of Covered Activities 

General Activity

Description

Rehabilitation of diversion structures and pipeline reaches

  • Laguna Creek,1 Majors Creek, and Reggiardo Creek Diversions: Sediment transport and fish screening improvements

  • Felton Diversion: Fish passage improvements and pump upgrades and replacements

  • Tait Street Diversion:2 Fish passage improvements and diversion capacity increase

  • North Coast System pipeline rehabilitation: Replacement of portions of supply pipelines

Water diversion

  • Provision of drinking water utilizing existing water rights (as described in the proposed Santa Cruz Water Rights Project) and pending water rights modifications under consideration by the SWRCB with addition of “Conservation Flows” (also known as Agreed Flows) at Liddell Spring Diversion, Reggiardo Creek Diversion, Laguna Creek Diversion, Majors Creek Diversion, Newell Creek Dam, Felton Diversion, and Tait Street Diversion and Wells

Reservoir operations

  • Chemical algaecide treatment of reservoir: 1-5 algaecide treatments annually

  • Testing deluge and gate valves: 1 test annually of 5-10 cfs for several hours. Bigger tests during winter/high flows as possible

  • Woody debris removal on reservoir face: 10 cubic yards of <10″ diameter/8′ long wood removed annually

Water diversion sediment management

  • Liddell Spring Diversion: Excavation of up to 3 yards per event up to 1-3×/year. Valve operations

  • Laguna Creek Diversion: Excavation of 5-10 cubic yards per event up to 1-3×/year. Valve operations

  • Majors Creek Diversion: Excavation of 5-10 cubic yards per event up to 1-3×/year. Valve operations

Fish ladder and screen maintenance

  • Felton Diversion: 1-3×/year up to a yard of sediment and woody material needs to be removed from the ladder

  • Tait Street Diversion: 1-3×/year up to a yard of sediment and woody material needs to be removed from intake

Pipeline operations

  • Conveyance pipeline system inspections and repairs: Inspection and leak response on 19.23 miles of water line and 5.5 miles of leachate line

  • Finished water pipeline system flushing and repairs: Flushing and leak response on 270 miles of water line

  • Pumping well return to the San Lorenzo River: Ongoing pumping from clear well to remove sediment during high and moderate flows in winter and spring

  • North Coast valve blow-off to the San Lorenzo River: 5-10 cfs blow-off to riverbank occurring <1×/year during any part of the year for 1-4 hours

Dewatering of creeks for maintenance and repairs

  • Dewatered stream reaches can range from approximately 20-200 feet at 1-10 sites for 1-4 weeks in any given year

Flood control maintenance

  • Debris/obstruction removal: 1-3×/year in wet water years up to 100 cubic yards of material

  • Flood control sediment management/removal: Removal of approximately 2 cubic yards of sediment per drainage structure/annually or biannually for up to 30 drainage structures

  • Vegetation management: Thin riparian groves and remove willows >3″ dbh and alders >6″ dbh. Retain 5-10′ wide riparian buffer adjacent to low flow channel, but remove vegetation >6″ dbh annually

Stormwater maintenance

  • Inspection and cleaning: Inspect and clean as needed but as frequently as weekly. Sweep 35 miles of streets daily

  • Structural retrofits of storm drain inlets and basins: As-needed improvements of storm drain infrastructure

  • Sanitary landfill leachate management: Ongoing maintenance of two leachate ponds, transmission of leachate to wastewater plant and repair of leachate line

Emergency operations and response

  • Response to flood, fire, spill, or other related incident on a <1×/year basis and lasting from a few days to several weeks

General vegetation management within riparian corridors

  • Pruning and limited removal of riparian trees <5,000 square feet on an annual basis during the summer/fall months as needed adjacent to pipeline rights-of-way, water diversions and other utility infrastructure

Land management

  • Management of Loch Lomond Recreation Area and watershed lands: Operation and management of 180-acre recreation area and 3,880 acres of open space

  • Trail maintenance and repair: <50 yards of trail in non-anadromous watersheds annually

  • Road maintenance and decommissioning:

  • Maintenance: Approximately 6.9 miles of road maintained annually

  • Decommissioning: 0-1 miles of road including up to 3-4 culverts on non-anadromous drainages annually

Habitat management and restoration

  • Aquatic habitat management and restoration: Dewatering and fish removal in <100-yard stream reach annually

  • Monitoring: Habitat typing up to 20 miles of stream and tagging/handling of <10,000 fish annually. Visual census of up to 5,000 feet of stream annually. Maintenance of up to 10 stream gages, 2 pit tag antennas, 10 temperature loggers, 1 fish trap, and 2 water quality data sondes annually

Notes: cfs = cubic feet per second; dbh = diameter at breast height.

1 The Laguna Creek Diversion facility was retrofitted in 2021 in conformance with the ASHCP and is not analyzed in this IS.

2 Tait Street Diversion, also referred to as San Lorenzo River Tait Street Diversion, Tait Diversion, San Lorenzo River Tait Intake, etc., is one of two surface water diversions on the San Lorenzo River and located in Santa Cruz with the other being located in Felton.

 

Environmental Regulatory Compliance

The City has developed the draft ASHCP in coordination with California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and the National Marine Fisheries (NMFS) for compliance with the Federal and State Endangered Species Act for City operation and maintenance activities that may adversely affect special-status anadromous salmonids. The City has submitted a draft application for an ITP from CDFW pursuant to California Fish and Game Code Section 2081(b) for a 30-year period authorizing the incidental take of state-endangered coho. Likewise, the City has applied for an ITP from NMFS pursuant to ESA Section 10(a)(1)(B) for a 30-year period authorizing the incidental take of federally threatened steelhead and federally endangered coho (referred to collectively as Covered Species). The two ITPs would require implementation of the ASHCP, which contains the City's Covered Activities on steelhead and coho and their habitat in support of the long-term viability of these populations within streams and habitats affected by the Covered Activities.

The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) require lead agencies for projects to "inform government decisionmaker and the public about the potential environmental effects of proposed activities and to prevent significant, avoidable environmental damage." CEQA and NEPA compliance is required for permit issuance related to the ASHCP. 

A Draft Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Anadromous Salmonid Habitat Conservation Plan was released for a 30-day public review period beginning August 25th, 2023, and closing on September 25, 2023.

The Santa Cruz City Council will consider adopting the Final Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration for the Anadromous Salmonid Habitat Conservation Plan on January 23, 2023.

The National Marine Fisheries Service as the lead agency under NEPA circulated a draft Environmental Assessment for a 30-day public comment period beginning on September 11, 2023, and closing on October 11, 2023, as required for NEPA compliance.

The City of Santa Cruz as the lead agency under CEQA has prepared a draft Initial Study and a Mitigated Negative Declaration as required for CEQA compliance.

Project Area

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Project Timeline

August 2023 - Initial Study/Notice of Preparation and Mitigated Negative Declaration to be released for a 30-day public review period.

September 2023 - Draft Environmental Assessment released for a 30-day public review period.

September 2023 - Two public information meetings will be held during the public review period.

January 2024 - City Council approves CEQA documents.

Background Documents