OC EWRI Presents Maintaining Essential Water Infrastructure: AB 2488(Dababneh)
Export Event
| Calendar | Orange County |
|---|---|
| Location | Dave and Busters Irvine Spectrum, 661 Spectrum Center Drive Irvine, 92618 |
| Date | Thursday, December 7, 2017 at 11:30am - 1:00pm |
| Duration | 1 hours, 30 minutes |
| Details | _____________ Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oc-ewri-presents-maintaining-essential-water-infrastructure-ab-2488dababneh-tickets-39485382843?ref=ebapi _____________ Topic: Maintaining Essential Water Infrastructure: AB 2488 (Dababneh) Speakers: Deirdre West, Environmental Planning Section Manager, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Deirdre West has more than twenty five years of progressively responsible experience in the environmental planning field. She is currently the manager of Environmental Planning of The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (Metropolitan). Metropolitan is a regional wholesaler that delivers water to 26 member public agencies, which in turn provide water to 19 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties. Metropolitan is governed by a 28-member board of directors and is the largest distributor of treated drinking water in the United States. As the manager of Environmental Planning, Ms. West is responsible for overseeing California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and environmental regulatory compliance, environmental construction monitoring, habitat restoration, sustainability programs, legislative and federal state rule-making reviews, and management of over 30,000 acres of Metropolitan reserve lands. She also has extensive experience as a project manager of large-scale, complex, water infrastructure projects, including direction and oversight of multi-disciplinary teams, administration of multi-million dollar contracts, negotiations with outside agencies, and partnering on numerous projects with NGOs, regulatory agencies, and legislators. Ms. West has extensive knowledge and proficiency with key environmental laws and regulations including CEQA, federal and state Endangered Species Acts, Clean Water Act, California Fish and Game Code, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and National Historic Preservation Act. Synopsis: Roughly 30 percent of Southern California’s water supply comes from Northern California through the State Water Project. Metropolitan’s Foothill Feeder is one of the primary conveyance pipelines to deliver State Water Project supplies to the region. Approximately every five years, Metropolitan must shut down and drain (dewater) the Foothill Feeder pipeline to inspect the pipe, repair any damage, or reinforce the structure. Several of the drainage areas along this route, including the Santa Clara River and its tributaries, may contain populations of unarmored threespine stickleback, a two- to-three-inch long fish that is listed as endangered under federal and state Endangered Species Acts. This fish is also designated as a California fully protected species. Under certain circumstances, dewatering the Foothill Feeder could strand fish on stream banks. To avoid stranding the fish in the past, Metropolitan has worked with the federal and state fish and wildlife agencies to implement measures including modifying the timing and volume of dewatering and deploying federal- and state-licensed fishery biologists prepared to move stranded stickleback back into the stream if necessary. A recent California Supreme Court decision held that relocating a fully protected species back into a stream to mitigate or avoid a project’s impact constitutes incidental take of that species. With limited exceptions, DFW may not issue an incidental take permit for a fully protected species.1 While avoidance remains the goal, left unaddressed, this prohibition on live relocation of fish to avoid a taking could prevent inspection, maintenance and repairs to Metropolitan’s Foothill Feeder, to ensure the public’s health and safety and safeguard essential water supplies. AB 2488 by Assembly Member Dababneh (D-Encino) will allow DFW to permit incidental take of the unarmored threespine stickleback for periodic short-term dewatering of the Foothill Feeder, consistent with other state legislation that has permitted incidental take of fully protected species for critical public infrastructure projects.2 This bill will allow for rescue and relocation of the fish out of harm’s way and other measures to minimize and mitigate incidental take, and to contribute to the conservation of this sensitive species while ensuring reliability of the Foothill Feeder’s critical water supply to Southern California. Time: Lunch @ 11:50 am; Program ends @ 1:00 pm Location: Dave and Busters' at Irvine Spectrum, 661 Spectrum Center Drive, Irvine, CA (949) 727-0555 Cost: $45 at the door, $35 advanced payment by mail, PayPal or credit card, $40 registered but pay at the door, Students $15 at the door with school ID For PayPal payment, please send payment to: HHTG_OC@yahoo.com Mail checks payable to "ASCE HHTG" and RSVP to: Jenny Robinet, EWRI Treasurer 17520 Newhope Street, Suite 200, Fountain Valley, CA 92708 Confirm: Call (714) 481-7238, or e-mail to: asceocewri@gmail.com |
| Repeats? | No |