Addendum No. 1 to the Mitigated Negative Declaration Cross Valley Canal Extension Lining Project

Addendum No. 1 to the Mitigated Negative Declaration Cross Valley Canal Extension Lining Project

The Kern County Water Agency (Agency) operates and maintains the Cross Valley Canal (CVC), an approximately 22 mile canal located in Kern County. The CVC was constructed in 1976 and is used to deliver agricultural and urban water supplies to various purveyors and groundwater banking projects. The CVC is concrete lined along a majority of its length; however, the CVC Extension, an approximately three-mile section consisting of Pool Nos. 7 and 8, is earthen lined. The CVC Extension begins approximately one quarter mile east of Coffee Road and terminates at the Agency's Henry C. Garnett Water Purification Plant (HCGWPP) in Bakersfield, California. The CVC Extension is used to deliver water to Cawelo Water District and the Agency's Improvement District No. 4 (ID4), including State Water Project water. Water delivered to the HCGWPP is distributed to four retail water purveyors serving the greater Bakersfield area. The CVC Extension Lining (Project) proposed to line the CVC Extension with concrete to reduce seepage losses. As the CVC Extension facilities age, additional maintenance activities are required to maintain its functionality. Therefore, it may be necessary to conduct the following maintenance activities: 1. Repair, replace or otherwise modify fencing or access gates; 2. Repair, rebuild or otherwise modify the height of the eve Extension embankments; 3. Repair, rebuild or otherwise modify Pumping Plant No. 7; 4. Repair, rebuild or otherwise modify eve Extension culverts, siphons, turnouts and associated gates and traveling screens; 5. Provide, repair, rebuild or otherwise modify power and fiberoptics to CVC Extension infrastructure. These activities will not expand the existing footprint or capacity of the CVC Extension. The Agency Board of Directors, having conducted a careful and independent review of the proposed changes to Cross Valley Canal Extension Lining Project, described above, does hereby find and declare that said changes and additions are minor in nature and do not result in new significant environmental effects or substantially increase the severity of previously identified environmental effects, and do not call for the preparation of a subsequent negative declaration or environmental impact report pursuant to CEQA Guidelines § 15162. A brief statement of the reasons supporting the Board's findings is as follows: The proposed maintenance activities are within the area analyzed by the Biological Assessment and Culture Resource Study for the Mitigated Negative Declaration. The proposed changes will result in a less than significant change in ground disturbing activities and in the environmental effects associated with the Project as originally designed.

Bakersfield

Kern

Northern California

Kern