Cargill Mixed Sea Salts Processing and Brine Discharge Project

Cargill Mixed Sea Salts Processing and Brine Discharge Project

Cargill is proposing to enhance extraction of additional salts from the mixed sea salts (MSS) inventory stored at its Solar Salt Facility in Newark, CA. After harvesting additional product the residual MSS would be dissolved in San Francisco Bay (Bay) water to produce a brine that would be pumped into the East Bay Dischargers Authority's (EBDA) combined effluent conveyance system. Once in EBDA’s conveyance system, the brine would be blended with and further diluted by EBDA Member Agency effluent and then discharged back into the Bay at an average rate ranging from 0.9 million gallons per day (MGD) to 2 MGD, (taking approximately 20 to 10 years respectively), in accordance with EBDA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Through this process, the volume of brine and precipitated salts stored in ponds adjacent to the Bay at the Solar Salt Facility would be reduced. The proposed project would involve construction of new pipelines and pumping facilities within Cargill’s Solar Salt Facility and construction of approximately 16 miles of new underground pipeline, primarily within roadway rights-of-way, to connect the Solar Salt Facility to EBDA’s outfall system on the site of the Oro Loma Sanitary District/Castro Valley Sanitary District Water Pollution Control Plant in the community of San Lorenzo. On May 20, 2022, EBDA issued a Notice of Preparation (NOP) for the proposed project (SCH No. 2022050436). A scoping meeting was conducted on June 1, 2022. A 2nd NOP is being re-issued due to a change in the location of part of the project (specifically, a portion of the pipeline alignment).

Fremont, Hayward, Newark, Union City

Alameda

Citywide, San Francisco Bay Area, Unincorporated

California Air Resources Board (ARB), California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bay Delta Region 3 (CDFW), California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Marin Region 7 (CDFW), California Department of Parks and Recreation, California Department of Transportation, District 4 (DOT), California Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics (DOT), California Department of Transportation, Division of Transportation Planning (DOT), California Department of Water Resources (DWR), California Highway Patrol (CHP), California Natural Resources Agency, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Francisco Bay Region 2 (RWQCB), California State Lands Commission (SLC), Department of Toxic Substances Control, Office of Historic Preservation, San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Drinking Water, State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Quality, California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC)

California Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC)

Other (Brine Transport Pipeline to Cobmined Effluent Discharge Pipeline)

Routine development permits, such as encroachment, grading, and noise permits; agreements for private pipeline placement in public rights-of-way

Air Quality, Biological Resources, Coastal Zone, Cultural Resources, Cumulative Effects, Flood Plain/Flooding, Geology/Soils, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Hazards & Hazardous Materials, Hydrology/Water Quality, Noise, Recreation, Sewer Capacity, Transportation, Vegetation, Wetland/Riparian