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Home My WebLink About05.16.2024 Board Correspondence - FW_ Delegated Order issued in FERC P-2107-063From:Clerk of the Board To:Bennett, Robin; Clerk of the Board; Connelly, Bill; Cook, Holly; Cook, Robin; Durfee, Peter; Jessee, Meegan; Kimmelshue, Tod; Kitts, Melissa; Lee, Lewis; Pickett, Andy; Ritter, Tami; Stephens, Brad J.; Sweeney, Kathleen; Teeter, Doug; Zepeda, Elizabeth; Loeser, Kamie Cc:Nevers, Dawn Subject:Board Correspondence - FW: Delegated Order issued in FERC P-2107-063 Date:Thursday, May 16, 2024 2:43:08 PM Please see Board correspondence - -----Original Message----- From: 'FERC eSubscription' <eSubscription@ferc.gov> Sent: Thursday, May 16, 2024 9:05 AM Subject: Delegated Order issued in FERC P-2107-063 .ATTENTION: This message originated from outside Butte County. Please exercise judgment before opening attachments, clicking on links, or replying.. On 5/16/2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington D.C., issued this document: Docket(s): P-2107-063 Lead Applicant: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Filing Type: Delegated Order Description: Order Approving Revised Poe Bypass Reach Fish and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Plan Pursuant to Article 401(A), Water Quality Certification Condition 9, etc. re Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Poe Hydroelectric Project under P-2107. 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Comments and Suggestions can be sent to this email address: mailto:FERCOnlineSupport@Ferc.gov 187 FERC ¶ 62,111 UNITED ST AT ES OF AMERICA FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION Pacific Gas and Electric Company Project No.2107-063 ORDER APPROVING REVISED POE BYPASS REACH FISH AND BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE PLAN PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 401(A), WATER QUALITY CERTIFICATION CONDITION 9, AND FOREST SERVICE 4(E) CONDITION 25 (Issued May 16, 2024) 1.On February 28, 2024, and supplemented on April 30, 2024, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, licensee for the Poe Hydroelectric Project No. 2107, filed a revised Poe Bypass Reach Fish and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Plan (Plan), pursuant to Article 401(a), California State Water Resources Control Board (California SWRCB) Water Quality Certification (WQC) condition 9, and U.S. Forest Service (Forest Service) condition 25 of the project license.1 The project is located on the North Fork Feather River, upstream of Lake Oroville, near the Town of Pulga, in Butte County, California. The project occupies, in part, federal lands within the Plumas National Forest, administered by the Forest Service. License Requirements and Background 2.Article 401(a) required the licensee to file a Poe bypass reach biological monitoring plan, pursuant to WQC condition 9 (Appendix A)and Forest Service condition 25 (Appendix B), within one year of license issuance. During subsequent discussions, the licensee and resource agencies agreed to separate the amphibian monitoring component from the biological monitoring plan to better address those specific needs. The licensee filed a fish and benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI)monitoring plan without an amphibian component on December 17, 2019, and the Commission approved the Plan on April 16, 2020.2 The Plan includes provisions for reviewing, updating, and revising the Plan, as needed, when significant changes in existing conditions occur, in consultation with the Forest Service,California SW RCB, U.S. Fish 1 Order Issuing New License (165 FERC ⁋ 62,172), issued December 17, 2018. 2 171 FERC ¶ 62,050 Document Accession #: 20240516-3034 Filed Date: 05/16/2024 Project No. 2107-063 -2 - and Wildlife Service, and California Department of Fish and Wildlife (California DFW) (collectively, resource agencies). Licensee’s Proposed Revisions 3.The licensee proposes to revise the Plan to incorporate recommendations made by their biologists and resource agency staff that would change the collection methodology and monitoring site selection, among other adjustments. Specifically, they propose to: (1) discontinue Target Riffle Composite protocol and replace it with the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)’s Reach Wide Benthos protocol for BMI sampling; (2) move the Poe Dam fish and BMI monitoring site to the Flea Valley Creek, and the Stag Creek BMI monitoring site to Yellow Creek,to increase field crew safety and accessibility; (3) extend the monitoring window from September 15 through October 15 to September 15 through October 31; (4) change fish length classifications from 2- inch increments to 5-inch increments to increase field crew sizing accuracy and consistency during snorkel surveys; (5) shift the year representing the start of monitoring from license Year 2 (2020)to license Year 3 (2021), to correct and acknowledge the delay in monitoring implementation due to the 2020 North Complex Fire; and (6) add clarifying language regarding the physical measurements that will be collected as part of the SWAMP protocol. Agency Consultation 4.The licensee provided a draft of the revised Plan to the resource agencies on June 15, 2023,and requested comments within 60 days. On October 31, 2023, the licensee requested concurrence from the California SW RCB and the Forest Service regarding the revisions. No substantive comments were received,and the December 2023 version of the Plan reflects all revisions proposed. On April 16, 2024, the SWRCB filed their approval of the revised Plan with the Commission, without modification. On March 29, 2024, the Forest Service provided their approval, without modification, via email to the licensee. Discussion and Conclusion 5.The revisions proposed either improve sampling consistency and integrity, increase crew safety, add scheduling flexibility, or address out-of-date implementation dates. These revisions are reasonable. The use of SW AMP’s Reach Wide Benthos protocol is now considered best practice over Target Riffle Composition methods for evaluating BMI assemblage and habitat, and will still include riffle sampling.The change in the location of two sample sites was proposed to increase the safety and ease of access of the field crew, which is expected to improve the consistency with which these sites will be sampled over the license term, while remaining representative of the aquatic resources of the bypass reach. The change that allows increased scheduling flexibility (adding 15 days to the monitoring period)is expected to reduce the variances requested in Document Accession #: 20240516-3034 Filed Date: 05/16/2024 Project No. 2107-063 -3 - the future due to various delays. The increase in the length increment classifications will reduce some of the granularity of the size data generated by the snorkel surveys but will increase the reproducibility between surveys and will continue to provide insight on the productivity of game fishes (e.g., the 0 to 5 inch size representing young of the year and juvenile fish, recent successful recruitment events, and greater than 10 inch fish representing the reproductive size class, up to trophy size individuals). The corrective and editorial revisions more accurately convey the information and requirements of the Plan. The resource agencies were allotted a sufficient review period; all found the revised Plan to be consistent with the requirements and expectations of WQC condition 9 and Forest Service condition 25. Therefore, the licensee’s request to revise the Plan should be approved. The Director orders: (A)Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (licensee) request to revise the Poe Bypass Reach Fish and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Plan,filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) on February 28, 2024,and supplemented April 30, 2024,pursuant to Article 401(a),Water Quality Certification condition 9, and U.S. Forest Service 4(e) condition 25 of the license for the Poe Hydroelectric Project No. 2107, is approved. (B)This order constitutes final agency action. Any party may file a request for rehearing of this order within 30 days from the date of its issuance, as provided in section 313(a) of the Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. § 825l, and the Commission’s regulations at 18 C.F.R. § 385.713 (2023). The filing of a request for rehearing does not operate as a stay of the effective date of this order, or of any other date specified in this order. The licensee’s failure to file a request for rehearing shall constitute acceptance of this order. Andrea Claros, Chief Aquatic Resources Branch Division of Hydropower Administration and Compliance Document Accession #: 20240516-3034 Filed Date: 05/16/2024 Document Content(s) P-2107-063_Poe Fish BMI Plan Revision.docx ...............................1Document Accession #: 20240516-3034 Filed Date: 05/16/2024