California-Great Basin

Statement of Work - Long-Term Contract Renewal, Cross Valley Canal Contractors EA

Contractor

URS Greiner

Purpose

The purpose of this SOW is to identify the tasks necessary to complete the development of sufficient environmental documentation to renew long-term water service and repayment contracts within the Cross Valley Canal Contractors of the Central Valley Project (CVP).

General Description

The Contractor is to prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the Cross Valley Canal Contractors of the CVP addressing the site-specific impacts relating to long-term contract renewals (LTR). The EA shall reference appropriate information from the draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) and is to follow the same format as the PEIS.

Background

On October 30, 1992, the CVPIA was signed into law. This act modifies the authorized purposes of the CVP and requires a wide range of environmental improvements and changes/potential changes in how the CVP is operated. It also specifically addresses contract renewals by setting new contract lengths and allowing interim renewals until the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process, including preparation of the PEIS, is complete.

Section 3409 of the CVPIA requires the Secretary of the Interior to prepare a PEIS to evaluate the direct and indirect impacts and benefits of implementing the CVPIA. Reclamation released a draft PEIS on November 7, 1997. An extended comment period closed on April 17, 1998. A final PEIS is scheduled to be released in September 1999.

The PEIS provides a programmatic evaluation of the impacts of implementing the CVPIA. Four alternatives with 17 Supplemental Analyses, and a No Action alternative are evaluated in the draft PEIS. The impact analysis in the PEIS was presented on a regional basis e.g. Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley. The No Action alternative in the PEIS assumed that existing water service contracts would be renewed under the same terms as expiring contracts. The Final PEIS will include a Preferred Alternative that will address the general method that the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) anticipates implementing CVPIA, including long-term contract renewal.

Section 3404(c) stated that:

"...the Secretary shall renew any existing long-term repayment or water service contract...for a period of 25 years...(after) appropriate environmental review, including the preparation of the environmental impact statement required in section 3409..."

With the pending completion of the final PEIS, Reclamation has initiated the process for renewing long-term contracts. This process includes the preparation of additional environmental documentation that will "tier" off of the PEIS.

Reclamation released a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare environmental documents on long-term renewal of CVP water contracts (LTRED) in the Federal Register on October 15, 1998. Reclamation held eight (8) scoping meetings throughout the CVP service area (Oakland, Los Molinos, Fresno, Williams, Sacramento, Visalia, Gilroy, Modesto) during the first three weeks of November. Scoping for these documents closed January 8, 1999. The Scoping Report is scheduled for release in early March.

Schedule

The schedule objective for the overall LTRED process is to have all of the LTRED's finalized, and the accompanying decision filed in sufficient time so that Reclamation can execute long-term renewal contracts prior to the expiration of the current interim renewal contracts on February 29, 2000.

An administrative draft EA is to be delivered to Reclamation NLT October 26, 1999. The contractor shall allow at least 4 weeks for Reclamation to review the administrative draft EA and at least 2 weeks for any other draft or final documents. The final, camera ready document, is to be delivered to Reclamation NLT January 29, 2000.

General Information

Project Team and SOW Review. Upon authorization, the Contractor shall provide, within five (5) working days after initiation of the work, a statement of the personnel who are assigned to this effort. This should be a brief statement, providing names, titles and telephone numbers. A statement of qualifications and experience is not required under this effort. The Contractor's Project Manager, and any key staff of the Contractor's project team, will meet with Reclamation to clarify the statement of work, refine the deliverables and refine the schedule, and explain the roles of personnel assigned to this effort.

Information to be Provided by Reclamation. Reclamation will provide up to two copies of the PEIS CD ROM set to the Contractor. In addition, Reclamation will provide the Contractor with the draft LTR Scoping Report for Long-Term Contract Renewals. A copy of the final LTR Scoping Report will be provided to the Contractor when it is available.

Reclamation is currently developing a water needs assessment for the entire list of districts that will be included in the current renewal process. The assessment will include both historical (circa 1995) and projected future demands. This information will be provided to the contractor by April 1999.

Reclamation will provide the PROSIM input and output files for the No Action Alternative, Preferred Alternative, and Cumulative Effects runs for the PEIS by March 22, 1999. Reclamation will also provide the input and output files for the other modeling that is done utilizing PROSIM or other sequential models for the PEIS analysis on or about April 19, 1999. The Preferred Alternative modeling runs will include: TEMP, SANJASM, CVGSM, CVPM, and IMPLAN.

As renewal contract issues and terms are identified as part of the negotiation process, Reclamation will provide the information to the contractor. This will be a continual process throughout the life of this SOW.

Compatible Software. Any information provided by the Contractor to Reclamation shall be compatible with the software packages identified in the Master Contract unless another format is agreed to by Reclamation prior to delivery.

Meetings With Reclamation. Meetings will be held with Reclamation throughout the LTRED process. Initially, semi-monthly meetings will be held with Reclamation staff and all LTRED contractors (Contractor Group) to discuss the progress of activities, receive guidance on upcoming activities, and resolve substantive and logistic issues that may arise during the course of work for all tasks. These meetings will be to assure that all documents are consistent in their needed level of analysis and that a consistent direction is maintained among all of the LTREDs. In the latter part of the LTRED process, it is assumed that the Contractor Group will meet once every two to three months.

In addition, monthly meetings will be held with the Contractor on the individual site-specific documents. The purpose of these meetings is to deal with specific issues of a particular LTRED.

The Contractor will submit suggested agenda items for each meeting, and necessary handouts and materials required for the orderly discussion of subjects that may arise as part of the meetings. The Contractor shall prepare meeting notes for meetings on individual documents. The notes shall include a list of handouts for the meeting as well as a description of actions (if any) the Contractor intends to take or was directed to take as a result of the meeting. Agendas and meeting notes will be due as follows, unless otherwise specified by Reclamation:

• Agenda items for Contractor's group meetings 2 working days prior to meeting
• Meeting notes for site-specific meetings 3 working days after meeting
• Copies of handouts and discussion materials at meetings

Submittals. All submittals of written documents should include 20 copies and 1 unbound original (final documents should be camera ready) unless otherwise specified by Reclamation. In addition to any written material, the Contractor will provide electronic files, on 3-1/2" floppy diskettes or ZIP disks, containing the written information in an appropriate format.

Report Format. Reports and Technical Memorandum developed under this contract are to use a format consistent with the PEIS and approved by Reclamation. Where applicable, the reports should be formatted in a manner to facilitate incorporation of references from PEIS documentation. For example, a report describing the existing conditions in greater detail than that currently shown in the PEIS for the site-specific area shall be prepared in a format that allows the general description within the PEIS to be easily incorporated into the site-specific document. Other final reports shall follow the format defined for the PEIS to allow ready referencing of PEIS documentation. The Contractor will work with Reclamation to ensure correct formats are used.

Work Items

The following sections describe the general expectations of content for the individual major work items.

Existing Conditions

The purpose of the Existing Conditions evaluation is to collect and compile data to describe the existing conditions of the affected environment and to provide a historical perspective of the existing conditions. The criteria used in the PEIS for selection of environmental resources, level of detail, historical period to be considered, and study area should continue to be followed in the LTRED's unless exceptions are identified.

The major effort in this work item will be to develop the historical perspectives and identify the presence of "cause and effect" relationships between past actions and existing conditions, with the focus on the Federal action of renewing contracts. This effort will require concurrent analysis of several environmental resources and screening of background "noise" due to multiple activities or natural conditions, such as drought. Many events have occurred in the past 100 years and impacted the Existing Conditions. However, it is not possible to use the historical data to isolate the effects of the CVP. Only the composite effects of all events can be identified.

For environmental resources, data will be compiled and presented in technical appendices in a similar manner as the PEIS. These documents will include sufficient detail to be directly used for alternative analyses. For the Existing Conditions evaluation, the data will be summarized and presented at the District level.

Development of No-Action Alternative and Cumulative Impacts Projects List

The purpose of this work item is to review the No-Action Alternative and Cumulative Impacts Project list from the PEIS to determine if any modifications should be made for the LTRED's. This work item should obtain existing data that will be used to evaluate any additional future projects and plans not previously identified in the development of the PEIS, and any local projects that should be included in the site-specific analysis, for possible inclusion in the No Action alternative or the Cumulative Impacts analysis. Data may include appropriate reports by Reclamation, other Federal agencies, State agencies, and local agencies.

It is currently anticipated that the No Action Alternative will be the same as the Preferred Alternative and the Cumulative Impact Analysis will be identical as what is presented in the PEIS.

A summary matrix will be prepared identifying any changes in the projects that will be included in the Cumulative Impacts Project list for use in the Cumulative Impacts Analysis.

Development of Alternatives

The purpose of this work item is to develop procedures to identify and describe a reasonable range of alternatives. Provisions of Title 34, as included in the Preferred Alternative of the PEIS must be reviewed to determine their applicability to the LTRED process and how their implementation may affect LTR.

Each alternative will be formulated from a combination of issues relating to contract renewal negotiations and CVPIA requirements. Negotiations will be carried out in a three phase process: Phase I - CVP-wide terms; Phase II - Division/Unit level terms; and Phase III - District specific terms. Reclamation will provide the Contractor with contract terms as they become available. The Contractor will identify implementation options available to meet the provisions of Section 3404(c) of CVPIA.

Results of analysis from the PEIS together with the changes in data, assumptions, and policies and their impacts on the formulation of the candidate alternatives will be documented in a technical memorandum or appendix. These will be the alternatives that will proceed into the detailed impact assessment.

Depth of Analysis

The purpose of this work item is to define the level of detail that will be used in describing the existing conditions and analyzing the consequences of implementing the various alternatives in the LTREDs. For example, should the LTRED describe existing floral conditions in the Sacramento River watershed as coniferous forests, oak woodlands, grasslands, riparian forests, etc. or should the existing conditions be described quite specifically i.e., there are 29.5 acres of valley oak riparian forest along a specific stretch of Cottonwood Creek? Perhaps it is somewhere in between.

In preparing an environmental document for an individual proposed action, Federal agencies are required to make a diligent effort to include a specific description of environmental parameters that may be affected by taking the proposed action and providing a full disclosure of the potential consequences of the agency decisions.

The effort required for this work item will be divided into two steps. In the first step, the Contractor will present alternative definitions of levels of detail, including examples and rationale, which they believe are appropriate in preparing the LTRED. It is conceivable that the level of detail may differ for different parameters. Also, the Contractor will recommend the appropriate level(s) of detail, including examples and rationale, for use in the LTRED. In the second step, the Contractor will use their findings in Step 1 to identify the specific level of detail for each environmental parameter to be included in the description of existing conditions for the LTRED.

Analytical Tools

The purpose of this work item is to identify, document and justify changes or additional models, than used in the PEIS, as the most appropriate analytical tools to be used in the EA. These tools must be able to identify and display/measure the projected impacts of implementation of the various alternatives being considered in the EA. Models included in the PEIS analysis were: surface water models (PROSIM, SANJASM), the consumptive use - depletion analysis (CU/DA) model, CVGSM, CVPM, and the fisheries indices.

Impact Analysis

The impact analysis work item should assume full analysis for all issue areas for two alternatives, the No-Action Alternative and an Existing Conditions scenario. It is assumed that these four scenarios will have similar CVP operations as described in the PEIS. Analyses of surface water, groundwater, agricultural economics, and/or fishery habitat impacts within the EA will be completed for the alternatives, as described below.

The Existing Conditions scenario will be presented to provide a benchmark for the EA reader to compare model results of the No-Action Alternative. The benchmark is needed because the No-Action Alternative is set in the Year 2025. It is difficult for many readers to compare the incremental differences between alternatives with a future No-Action Alternative set 25+ years in the future. The Existing Conditions scenario will allow the reader to compare the projected incremental differences between alternatives with the existing setting.

Physical Environment Overview. Impacts on the physical environment resulting from implementing any alternative will be assessed in relation to the anticipated conditions associated with the No-Action Alternative (Year 2025). The specific components of the physical environment that will be evaluated include: "Air Quality," "Geology and Soils," "Surface Water," "Ground Water," and "Water Supply and Uses," and "Power Supply and Demands."

Biological Environment Overview. Impacts on the biological environment resulting from implementing any alternative will be assessed in relation to the conditions anticipated for the No-Action Alternative (Year 2025). The specific components of the biological environment that will be evaluated include: "Vegetation and Wildlife," "Fisheries," and "Habitat Water Quality."

Economics Overview. Implementing Title 34 may cause substantial changes in the allocation, price, and use of water. These changes will result in direct economic impacts on sectors of the economy that use CVP water. Direct impacts to these sectors will, in turn, induce economic impacts in other sectors of the economy. Direct impacts will be assessed in five major categories: "Agricultural Production," "Recreation" (including sport fishing), "Municipal and Industrial Use," and "Power Production." For purposes of economic analysis, direct impacts are changes in output, income, employment, and other economic measures that occur in the sectors that directly use CVP water. Indirect and induced impacts occur as the direct impacts are passed through to other sectors (the so-called "ripple effects"). It is expected that this portion of the EA will be the major focus.

Sociocultural Environment Overview. This section addresses the sociocultural environment. The sociocultural environment is often referred to as the "human environment" and includes the following disciplines: "Agricultural Land Use," "Municipal & Industrial Land Use," "Demographics," "Cultural Resources," "Recreation," "Visual Resources," "Public Health," "Social Well-Being," and "Power Production and Consumption." The economics disciplines included in this PEIS are discussed separately; however, the sociocultural analyses will be closely coordinated with the economics analysis and the physical and biological analyses.

Title 34 is expected to change the timing, magnitude, and location of CVP water allocations. The price of CVP water is also expected to change. These changes in allocations and pricing could affect each of the evaluation factors described in the sections below. The social well-being analysis will summarize how the expected physical, biological, economic, and sociocultural impacts associated with each PEIS alternative would affect people, as measured by impacts on social groups, institutions, and communities.

Cumulative Impacts

Projects for the cumulative impact analysis will be defined to identify the "past, present, and reasonably foreseeable" future. These actions will initially be considered during the screening process for No-Action Alternative. Cumulative impacts include both additive and interactive impacts of concurrent projects or policies.

For the LTREDs, the interactive impacts are those caused by projects or policies not instituted for the Central Valley Project or by Interior and may include other water projects, major land use policies by local agencies, or major policies by resource agencies.

The additive impacts are primarily caused, in this case, by multiple or phased projects that have relatively minor individual impacts to a resource. However, the aggregated impacts, when combined with the impact of an alternative, may be significant. Examples of actions with additive impacts are development of local water supply projects.

For the purposes of this scope of work, the cumulative impacts will be aggregated and summarized. The impact analysis will be qualitative and will allow a relative comparison among alternatives considered in this project.

Other NEPA Sections

Other sections of the EIS that will be prepared in order to meet NEPA requirements include:

• The Relationship Between Short-term Uses of Man's Environment and the Maintenance and Enhancement of Long-Term Productivity; and
• Irreversible or Irretrievable Commitments of Resources

The Relationship Between Short-term Uses of Man's Environment and the Maintenance and Enhancement of Long-Term Productivity. This section of the EA will address the relation of changes to the environment associated with implementation of the alternative actions and the long-term maintenance and enhancement of environmental and other natural resources that may be affected. Specifically, the changes to the local and regional environment from implementation of alternatives will be assessed considering environmental enhancement and resource maintenance objectives assigned with each action alternative.

A matrix which presents a summary discussion of the relationship between the short-term uses of the environment and the maintenance and enhancement of the long-term productivity will be prepared. The information that will be used to complete the matrix will be compiled from the discussions and analyses prepared as part of the assessment of environmental consequences.

Irreversible or Irretrievable Commitments of Resources. This section of the EIS will identify those environmental and other natural resources that would be irreversibly or irretrievably committed with implementation of the action alternatives. This discussion will include an analysis of those resources, including socioeconomic resources, that may be significantly altered as a result of implementing the selected action alternative.

A matrix will be prepared which summarizes the results of this evaluation. The information to be used for this discussion will based upon the results of the assessment of environmental consequences.

Mitigation Measures and Resultant Impacts

This section will present measures that will partially or fully mitigate impacts associated with the alternatives. The mitigation measures will be presented for each alternative to equitably compare the mitigated alternatives. In addition, the impacts of the mitigation measures will be considered to ensure that the measures do not result in an impact that may be equal to or greater than the adverse impact of the alternative.

The mitigation measures will be developed utilizing the impact assessment tables presented in the Technical Appendix. The mitigation measures should be developed to avoid the action, minimize adverse impacts, restore the impacted environment, or reduce long-term impacts. For the EIS, the mitigation measures may range from physical facilities, such as construct a conveyance channel to transfer water, to procedures, such as steps that should be followed for subsequent site specific environmental documents.

Institutional Changes

Alternatives considered in the EA may require or foster institutional changes. For example, water transfers or reduction in water contracts may require changes in water contracts, water pricing structures, or modifications in the by-laws of a special district. Other institutional changes may be related to the Cooperative Operating Agreement, land use zoning changes to accommodate retired land, or socioeconomic changes to accommodate changes in agricultural or recreational communities that may be impacted by changes in water allocations.

Institutional functions in the study area will be evaluated in economic, land use, and social well being sections of the EIS. These impacts and the institutional impacts associated with cumulative impacts will be summarized in this section.

Environmental Document

This item involves preparing the EA, including the administrative review drafts, preparing the response to comments on the Draft EA, preparing the Final EA, and other NEPA required documents.

An Administrative Draft EA will be prepared that incorporates all the resource specific analyses and mitigation measures in accordance to NEPA. The EA will evaluate up to three alternatives (including the No-Action Alternative) plus the Existing Conditions. The EA will be organized and formatted to meet NEPA requirements. The Administrative Draft EA will be limited to 200 pages.

After receiving comments from Reclamation on the Administrative Draft EA, the public Draft EA will be prepared. The Draft EA will incorporate changes based on substantive comments.

The public will be allowed to comment on the Draft EA during a 30-day public review period.

After the public review period, the Contractor will assemble the public review comments. The comments will be organized and summarized by resource area (e.g., water supply, fisheries, economics, and land use) and draft responses will be prepared in coordination with Reclamation and the Cooperating Agency Groups at a field review. During the field review, the Contractor will prepare 25 bound copies and one unbound copy of the revised draft response to comments and present them to Reclamation.

A Draft Final EA will be prepared that meets NEPA requirements including preparation of a revised Draft EA and response to comments. The revised Draft Final EA is assumed to involve strike out text for deletions and shading for additions or clarifications.

A field review will be held to receive comments on the draft Final EA. Responses to the comments will be prepared during the field review and directly incorporated into the Final EA. This statement of work assumes only minor revisions will be required to the Draft Final EA. The Contractor will provide 25 bound and one unbound camera-ready original copies of the Final EA.

Public Involvement

The following Public Involvement tasks will be completed.

Meetings with Cooperating Agencies and Interested Groups: The Contractor will assist in the preparation of up to three one-day InterAgency Meetings and three one-day Interest Group Meetings. Products will include pre-meeting planning, assistance with the preparation of presentation materials and handouts, assisting presenters with the comments and overheads, attending and recording the meetings, preparing meeting summaries, and preparing response to comments. The Contractor will assist Reclamation in on-going activities to keep interested individuals and groups informed of the EA progress. This will include written correspondence, telephone follow-up, and periodic meetings.

Public Meetings: The Contractor will assist in the preparation of workshops and other meetings designed to inform the public about EA activities and to obtain public input. A total of two workshops will be held over the course of the project. Workshop meetings are anticipated to be held in April and August 1999. The Contractor tasks will include pre-meeting planning, assistance in the preparation of meeting materials, developing design ideas for displays and handouts, assisting presenters with comments and overheads, preparing overheads, attending and recording, and preparing meeting summaries. Selected interested parties will be contacted prior to the meetings to encourage and enhance attendance.

April Workshop: This workshop will primarily address the candidate alternatives identified. It will also include descriptions of the No-Action Alternative and Existing Conditions.

August Workshop: This workshop will primarily address preliminary results of the impact analysis.

The Contractor will prepare a technical memorandum presenting responses to oral and written comments received as part of the workshops and/or public information package regarding the various tasks contained in this Statement of Work. The Contractor will also provide meeting summary notes for the Public Workshops.

Management Presentations and Small Group Presentations: The Contractor will prepare presentation materials in connection with management presentations and small interest group briefings on the status of the EA. A draft and final single camera-ready copy of the executive summary will be prepared for major management briefings. The Contractor will assist Reclamation in developing presentations and prepare 30 to 50 draft and final overheads. Management briefings will be scheduled at milestones in the EA process such as when initial impact analysis results are available and when recommendations are proposed that require management review. The Contractor will attend, record, and summarize meetings, if requested. Presentations to small groups, up to 5 different presentations, will be prepared on an as requested basis. The Contractor will assist Reclamation in preparing presentations, overheads and handouts and attend, record, and summarize meetings as appropriate.

Project Controls

Budget and schedule control tools will be used throughout the project to ensure that the tasks are completed on-time and within the estimated costs. A monthly project status report will be prepared and delivered to Reclamation. The status report will present the technical, budget, and schedule status for all items. The report will indicate critical path items and potential problems/solutions to maintain the critical path.

Quality control and technical editing procedures for all deliverables will be implemented before submitting final products to Reclamation.

The Contractor will provide review, council, and oversight for compliance with NEPA procedures. The Contractor will review all draft documents before release for distribution and comment. The Contractor will maintain liaison with Reclamation procedural and policy staff to keep abreast of policy and regulation changes that could influence the outcome or direction of the EA. The Contractor will inventory and respond to any permit or other special requirement that could delay the completion of the final EA. The Contractor will provide assurance that the document is fully responsive to the legal guidance that will be provided by the Interior Office of the Solicitor.

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