Final Environmental Assessment: Blue Lake Rancheria Water Resources Development Project

摘要

Under the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) States Emergency Drought Relief Act of 1991, as amended (Drought Act), and other authorities, Reclamation is planning to use $40 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to fund emergency drought relief projects that can quickly and effectively mitigate the consequences that have resulted from drought conditions in California. 2009 was the third consecutive year of drought conditions in the State of California. Governor Schwarzenegger declared a drought emergency for the entire state. The Blue Lake Rancheria (BLR) Tribe is suffering from the prolonged drought and experiencing severe effects to the health and safety of tribal members. In compliance with Section 104 of the Drought Act, the BLR has declared a drought emergency and requested Reclamations assistance for the purpose of installing a combination community/irrigation well to provide a dependable source of water on the BLR for future use as irrigation for a green belt to reduce fire risk to Tribal Housing units as well as provide a potable water source for the proposed campground/RV park and existing and planned future housing on the BLR. The BLR is a federally recognized, Sovereign Indian nation located on 77 acres adjacent to the small town of Blue Lake in Humboldt County, California (Figure 1). Humboldt County is a rural county in Northern California located 225 miles north of San Francisco. Under normal weather conditions, the area has moderate temperatures and considerable precipitation. According to the California Drought Update dated July 31, 2009, the last three years have been abnormally dry weather conditions (DWR 2009). The recent dry conditions have resulted in the BLRs need for an alternative dependable source of water. The Proposed Action would supply water to a 40-acre area on the BLR (Figure 2). The proposed project area was originally a mobile home park consisting of older model mobile homes (17 acres) and fallow grassland used for horse pasture rental (23 acres) in the dormant area of the site which is now wild land. The mobile home park had debilitated infrastructure with outdated piping and inadequate and unsafe potable water. Due to this problem, the mobile home park was discontinued as replacement of infrastructure costs would have far exceeded income generated by space rental. The original two wells that serviced the mobile home park were hand dug, shallow and exhibited surface water influence since the soils are all river bed and percolate rapidly. The 23-acre fallowed pasture area of the Proposed Action area is encompassed by overgrown vegetation that is dry most of the year due to current and previous drought conditions and therefore has been designated a high severity fire risk by the County of Humboldt (HCFSC 2006). One way to reduce fire risk and possible losses of Tribal Housing on the BLR is to obtain an adequate dependable water source. A dependable source of water would maintain the green belt status and help to keep fire risk to a minimum. In addition from the benefits of fire prevention, the Tribe is in need of a clean potable water source for the proposed campground/RV park as well as existing and planned future housing on the BLR.