Final Environmental Assessment: Community Water Company of Green Valley Central Arizona Project Water Delivery System Pima County, Arizona

摘要

An initial draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) for the Community Water Company of Green Valleys (CWC) proposed construction and operation of its Central Arizona Project (CAP) Water Delivery System and Recharge Facility was made available for a public review and comment period on March 6, 2009. Subsequent to the end of the public review and comment period, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) received a letter from CWC that stated, in part, the cost to develop and operate the recharge facility proposed in the subject EA will not be supportable by Community Water over the long haul. CWC indicated its intention to identify an alternate location for the recharge facility associated with the CAP Water Distribution System. After a rigorous evaluation of 10 potential recharge areas, CWC identified two alternate recharge sites, located adjacent to each other, about 1.6 miles west of the originally proposed recharge site. Both of these sites were found to be more suitable than the original recharge location. Evaluation of these two sites indicates either site would be capable of recharging up to 7,000 acre-feet per year (AFY), which is the preferred capacity initially identified in the original scoping notice to the public. The evaluation also indicated resulting impacts would be similar to those described in the original DEA. A revised DEA (RDEA) was prepared to reflect the new recharge site alternatives, an increase in the capacity of the recharge facility (from 5,000 to 7,000 AFY), and an optional tie-in to the CAP terminus, in case CWC is not able to connect into the Pima Mine Road Recharge Project Lateral. The action alternatives presented in the RDEA were adjusted to accommodate these refinements to the proposed project, and are described in more detail in Section 2.0Description of Alternatives. With the elimination of the original recharge site, there now are no anticipated effects to Pima pineapple cactus or the lesser long-nosed bat. This is explained in more detail in Section 3.4.2.2.3 Biological Resources Environmental Consequences Preferred Alternative Threatened and Endangered Species. Reclamation also revised the RDEA, where appropriate, in response to comments received on the March 2009 DEA. The RDEA was released for public review and comment in April 2010. Reclamation incorporated comments received on RDEA into this Final EA. All comments received on the DEA and RDEA, and Reclamations responses, are included in Appendix F of this Final EA.