HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.16.2024 Board Correspondence - FW_ Delegated Order issued in FERC P-619-182From: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-619-182
Date:Wednesday, July 17, 2024 10:52:14 AM
Please see Board correspondence -
LeAnne Hancock
Management Analyst I
Butte County Administration
T. 530.552.3314
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Subject: Delegated Order issued in FERC P-619-182
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On 7/16/2024, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Washington D.C., issued this document:
Docket(s): P-619-182
Lead Applicant: Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Filing Type: Delegated Order
Description: Order Modifying and Approving Dewatering and Diversion Plan under Article 401(B) re Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the City of Santa Clara, California's Bucks Creek Project under P-619.
To view the document for this Issuance, click here https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://elibrary.ferc.gov/eLibrary/filelist?accession_num=20240716-
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188 FERC ¶ 62,030
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION
Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the City of Santa
Clara, California
Project No. 619-182
ORDER MODIFYING AND APPROVING DEWATERING AND DIVERSION PLAN
UNDER ARTICLE 401(B)
(Issued July 16, 2024)
1. On May 7, 2024, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the City of Santa Clara,
California, licensees for the Bucks Creek Project No. 619, filed a Dewatering and
Diversion Plan (Plan) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) for
the Lower Bucks spillway pursuant to Article 401(b) of the project license.1 The project
is located on Bucks Creek, Grizzly Creek, and the North Fork Feather River in Plumas
County, California. The project occupies, in part, federal lands administered by the U.S.
Forest Service (Forest Service).
Background
2. License Article 401(b) requires the licensees to file various plans for Commission
approval that are concurrent requirements of the California State Water Resources
Control Board’s (California SWRCB) section 401 water quality certification and the
Forest Service’s section 4(e) conditions. Specifically, condition No. 23 of the California
SWRCB’s water quality certification requires that the licensees prepare a Dewatering and
Diversion Plan prior to commencing any work that requires a water diversion or in-water
work below the maximum water surface elevation or high-water mark. License Article
401(b) requires that the Plan also be filed with the Commission at least 90 days prior to
starting work.
3. The Plan is to include the following:
!An overview of all in-water work that will require dewatering or diversion of
water;
!Time frames for required dewatering or diversion work;
!Description of coffer dams or equivalent barriers that will be used to isolate the
1 Order Issuing New License (179 FERC ¶ 61,202), issued June 16, 2022.
Document Accession #: 20240716-3037 Filed Date: 07/16/2024
Project No. 619-182 - 2 -
construction area from instream flows;
!Description of measures, if needed, that will be implemented to avoid potential
fish stranding and entrainment;
!Provisions to maintain downstream flow equal to upstream flow. If temporary
modification of minimum instream flows are required, the licensees shall provide
a written description of the modification, reason(s) for its necessity, measures that
will be implemented to protect water quality and beneficial uses, and the proposed
timeline for modification and return to the required minimum instream flow;
!Proposed monitoring and reporting related to the dewatering, diversion, and
turbidity of water; and
!Description of how, upon completion of construction activities, flow will resume
with the least disturbance to the substrate, water quality, and beneficial uses.
4. With each plan filed with the Commission under Article 401(b), the licensees must
include documentation that they developed the plan in consultation with the California
SWRCB, Forest Service, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, and other consulted agencies stipulated by the mandatory conditions,
and has received approval from the resource agencies, as applicable. For each plan filed,
the licensees must provide copies of any comments received, as well as their response to
each comment. The Commission reserves the right to make changes to any plan filed.
Upon Commission approval, the plan becomes a requirement of the license, and the
licensees must implement the plan, including any changes required by the Commission.
Any changes in the schedule or plan requires approval by the Commission before
implementing the proposed change.
Licensees’ Proposal
5. The licensees propose to implement a Dewatering and Diversion Plan to facilitate
repairs to the Milk Ranch Conduit Diversion No. 3. The licensees are planning to
reconnect a failed portion of the conduit from Diversion No. 3 at Grouse Hollow Creek in
August through October 2024. In the event of unseasonably wet weather or late
snowmelt, the licensees propose to dewater a portion of Grouse Hollow Creek and
construct a temporary sandbag berm to impound flows and bypass a portion of the work
area. Any flows impounded by the temporary berm would either be actively pumped or
bypassed using a gravity-fed drainage around the work area to a discharge point below
the Forest Service Road 24N24 crossing. The licensees state that Grouse Hollow Creek
is fishless, and no amphibians have been observed in the creek during various surveys
conducted since 2015 and therefore, no relocation efforts are necessary. In addition, the
licensees state that there would be no changes to minimum instream flows and that a
newly installed plate inside the intake structure would ensure compliance with the 0.5
cubic feet per second minimum flow requirement. Finally, the licensees propose to
remove accumulated sediment from behind the diversion dam and within the intake
structure and disposed of it in an upland location.
Document Accession #: 20240716-3037 Filed Date: 07/16/2024
Project No. 619-182 - 3 -
Agency Consultation
6. The licensees developed the Plan in coordination with the California SWRCB. By
letter dated May 6, 2024, the California SWRCB provided conditional approval of the
licensees’ Plan. The California SWRCB requires that the licensees conduct turbidity
monitoring above the sandbag barrier and below the flow bypass return location if
streamflow is present during the construction window. The California SWRCB also
requires that the licensees stop construction work in the event of an exceedance of the
turbidity objectives of its Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento River Basin and
the San Joaquin River Basin. Finally, the California SWRCB requires that the licensees
submit a water quality monitoring report, if applicable, within 60 days of work
completion.
Discussion and Conclusion
7. The licensees are proposing to implement a plan to minimize potential effects to
aquatic resources from planned dewatering and construction activities at the Milk Ranch
Creek Diversion No. 3 at South Fork Grouse Creek. If flows are present during
construction activities, approval of the licensees’ Plan would result in the dewatering of a
small section of South Fork Grouse Creek. In such an instance, the licensees should be
required to conduct the turbidity monitoring outlined by the California SWRCB in its
May 6, 2024 conditional approval letter. At the conclusion of the project, the licensees
should also be required to file the associated report with the Commission concurrent with
their submittal to the California SWRCB. Finally, the licensees should be required to
stop construction activities in the event of a turbidity exceedance, as required by the
California SWRCB.
8. In conclusion, the licensees’ Plan, with the above modifications, should
adequately protect aquatic resources during the temporary dewatering of South Fork
Grouse Creek. The Plan was also developed in consultation with, and approved by the
California SWRCB, as required by the project license. Therefore, the licensees’ Plan, as
modified, should be approved.
The Director orders:
(A) Pacific Gas and Electric Company and the City of Santa Clara, California’s
(licensees) Dewatering and Diversion Plan, filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (Commission) on May 7, 2024, pursuant to license Article 401(b) of the
Bucks Creek Project No. 619, as modified in ordering paragraphs (B) and (C), is
approved.
(B) If streamflow is present during construction activities in August to October
2024, the licensees must conduct turbidity monitoring as stipulated in the California State
Water Resources Control Board’s (California SWRCB) May 6, 2024 approval letter. The
Document Accession #: 20240716-3037 Filed Date: 07/16/2024
Project No. 619-182 - 4 -
licensees must also file a final report of their water quality monitoring with the
Commission within 60 days of concluding construction activities at the Milk Ranch
Creek Diversion No. 3, and include all elements identified in the California SWRCB’s
May 6, 2024 letter.
(C) The licensees must stop construction activities in the event of an
exceedance of the turbidity objectives of the California SWRCB’s Water Quality Control
Plan for the Sacramento River Basin and the San Joaquin River Basin (Basin Plan). The
licensees must also notify the California SWRCB within 24 hours of the exceedance and
not resume construction activities until turbidity meets the Basin Plan objective and the
California SWRCB has given approval to proceed. Any exceedances should also be
identified in the report to be filed with the Commission under ordering paragraph (B).
(D) 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
licensees’ 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 #: 20240716-3037 Filed Date: 07/16/2024
Document Content(s)
P-619-182.docx............................................................1
Document Accession #: 20240716-3037 Filed Date: 07/16/2024