Subject: Eel River - Potter Valley Project
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 09:08:44 +0000
From: BOB BAIOCCHI <cspa@psln.com>
Organization: CSPA
To: email distribution

United States of America

Before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Potter Valley Project No. 77-110

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Licensee

Eel River Watershed

In the Matter of Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Protection
and Maintenance of Fishery Resources at the Potter Valley Project

State of California

Comments by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance Regarding
the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Protection and
Maintenance of Fishery Resources at the Potter Valley Project

The following are the comments of the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Statement
(Draft EIS) for the Protection and Maintenance of Fishery Resources at
the Potter Valley Project.

1. NEPA requires a range of reasonable alternatives be disclosed and
evaluated by the lead federal agency in a NEPA document. The Draft EIS
is deficient because it failed to disclose and evaluate the
decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project as an alternative in the
Draft EIS.

On October 4, 1983 the Potter Valley Project was relicensed by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. There is new information which was
not considered or known during the relicensing of the Potter Valley
Project in 1983. The new information is that Coho Salmon have been
listed for protection under the provisions of the federal Endangered
Species Act. The Eel River and the Russian River are affected by the
operation of the Potter Valley Project. Both the Eel River and the
Russian River sustain listed Coho Salmon and their habitat.

Secondly, additional new information since the relicensing of the
Potter Valley Project in 1983 is that steelhead trout of the Russian
River were also listed for protection under the provisions of the
federal Endangered Species Act. Both the Eel River and the Russian River
sustain steelhead and their habitat.

Because of the listing of Coho Salmon and steelhead which were not
considered or known at the time the Potter Valley Project was
relicensed, the draft EIS must disclose and evaluate the decommissioning
of the Potter Valley Project as an alternative to protecting the listed
Coho Salmon and their habitat, listed steelhead and their habitat of the
Russian River, and the defacto endangered steelhead of the Eel River and
their habitat.

2. The Draft EIS is deficient because it failed to disclose, consider,
and evaluate the Section 4(d) Rule of the federal Endangered Species Act
for threatened steelhead of the Russian River. However, the Section 4(d)
Rule has not been adopted by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service
(U.S. Department of Commerce). The U.S. National Marine Fisheries
Service (U.S. Department of Commence) is mandated by Section 4(d) of the
federal Endangered Species Act to adopt Section 4(d) regulations which
provides for the conservation of listed steelhead species.

Section 4(d) of the federal Endangered Species Act shows in part as
follows:

Section 4(d) of the ESA provides that whenever a species is listed as
threatened, the USNMFS and/or the USNMFS shall issue regulations deemed
necessary and advisable to provide for the conservation of the species.
Conservation means the use of all methods and procedures which are
necessary to bring any endangered or threatened species to the point at
which the measures provided pursuant to the ESA are no longer necessary.
Examples of such methods and procedures are provided in Section 3(3) of
the ESA.

The Draft EIS should be delayed until such times as the U.S. National
Marine Fisheries Service (U.S. Department of Commerce) adopts Section
4(d) regulations for threatened steelhead of the Russian River, and said
Section 4(d) regulations are included in any draft and final EIS
prepared by FERC.

3. The U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (U.S. Department of
Commerce) is in the process of adopting critical habitat for Nine ESU of
steelhead in California, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. We reference 50
CFR Part 226 - Docket No. 990128036-9036-01; ID 033198A. The Draft EIS
failed to disclose, consider, and evaluate critical habitat for listed
steelhead species and their habitat in the Russian River watershed
because the designated critical habitat has not been adopted by the U.S.
National Marine Fisheries Service (U.S. Department of Commerce).

The Draft EIS should be delayed until such times as the U.S. National
Marine Fisheries Service (U.S. Department of Commerce) adopts critical
habitat for threatened steelhead of the Russian River watershed, and
said critical habitat areas are disclosed and evaluated in any draft and
final EIS prepared by FERC.

4. The defacto endangered steelhead of the Eel River watershed may be
listed for protection under the provisions of the federal Endangered
Species Act in the short term future because of a lawsuit filed by
Northern California Council Federation of Fly Fishermen, CSPA, and other
parties against the U.S. Department of Commence (Northern District Court
- March 3, 1999).

The Draft EIS should be delayed until the subject lawsuit is considered
by the courts and a ruling is made by the courts.

5. NEPA requires that cumulative impacts are disclosed and evaluated.
The Draft EIS is deficient for failing to disclose, consider, and
evaluate a watershed wide cumulative impact analysis to determine the
potential adverse cumulative impacts to listed Russian Coho Salmon,
listed Russian steelhead, listed Eel River Coho Salmon, and defacto
endangered Eel River steelhead, other cold water species, water quality,
and other public trust resources and assets effected by the Potter
Valley Project in the Eel River watershed and in the Russian River
watershed.

Cumulative impacts are defined as two or more individual effects which,
when considered together, are considerable or which compound or increase
other environmental impacts.

Cumulative impacts can result from individually minor but collectively
significant projects taking place over a period of time.

A legally adequate cumulative impacts analysis thus is an analysis of a
particular project viewed over time, and also in conjunction with other
related past, present, and reasonably foreseeable probable projects
whose impacts compound or interrelate with those at hand. The purpose of
such an analysis is to "assess cumulative damage as a whole greater than
the sum of its parts."

Unless cumulative impacts are analyzed, and the cumulative impacts were
not analyzed by the FERC, as is the case with the Draft EIS for the
proposed project, agencies such as the FERC tend to commit resources to
a course of action before understanding its long-term impacts.
Consequently, a proper cumulative impact analysis must be prepared for
the Potter Valley Project, before the project gains irreversible
momentum.

6. The Draft EIS did not disclose whether PG&E consulted with the State
Water Resources Control Board and obtained a Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act water quality certification. The FERC should require PG&E to
consult with the State Water Resources Control Board and obtained a
Section 401 of the Clean Water Act water quality certification. Said
water quality certification should be disclosed and included in the
Draft EIS.

Conclusion:

The draft EIS is deficient as written as shown above.

That concludes the written comments of the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance.

Respectfully Submitted

SIGNED BY BOB BAIOCCHI
____________________________________________
Robert J. Baiocchi, Consultant
For: California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
P.O. Box 357
Quincy, CA 95971
Bus Tel: 530-836-1115; Fax: 530-836-2062

Dated: April 14, 1999

Certificate of Service

Mr. David P. Boergers, Secretary
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
888 First Street, N.E.
Washington D.C. 20426
(Original and 7 Copies)

Mr. Steve Volker, Esquire
Brecher & Volker LLP
Attorney for Friends of the River
436 14th Street, Suite 1300
Oakland, CA 94612

Mr. Wayne White, State Supervisor
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
3310 El Camino Avenue, Suite 130
Sacramento, CA 95821-6340

Mr. Jim Bybee, Supervisor
U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service
777 Sonoma Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95404

Ms. Nadananda
Friends of the Eel River
P.O. Box 2305
Redway, CA 95560

Mr. Jim Crenshaw, President
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance
1248 East Oak Avenue, Suite D
Woodland, CA 95695

Mr. Michael Jackson, Esquire
P.O. Drawer 207
Quincy, CA 95971

Mr. Terry Morford, Manager
Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Licensee
P.O. Box 770000
San Francisco, CA 94177

Interested Parties