SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Bureau of Reclamation has released the Final Environmental Assessment/Initial Study and a Finding of No Significant Impact for the Tulare Irrigation District Cordeniz Basin Project, to expand an existing groundwater recharge basin in Tulare County.
Reclamation will provide $1.9 million for the estimated $4 million project under Public Law 111-11, Part III of Title X, Subtitle A which authorizes financial assistance to local agencies within Reclamation’s Central Valley Project for planning, designing and constructing local facilities to bank water underground or recharge groundwater.
The project includes constructing and operating an 80-acre groundwater recharge basin, installing supervisory control and data acquisition equipment, relocating a segment of the Serpa Ditch, and constructing five groundwater monitoring wells within the Tulare Irrigation District. These actions will allow the district to expand groundwater recharge efforts and improve monitoring of groundwater levels. The project also contributes to the San Joaquin River Restoration Program’s goals of reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts on the Friant Division long-term contractors resulting from the release of Restoration Flows, which help to restore and maintain fish populations in good condition from below Friant Dam to the confluence of the Merced River.
The Final EA/IS and FONSI were prepared in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act. Reclamation is the lead agency in accordance with NEPA and Tulare Irrigation District is the lead agency in accordance with CEQA. The documents may be viewed at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_project_details.php?Project_ID=23249. If you encounter problems accessing the documents online, please call 916-978-5100 (TTY 800-877-8339) or email mppublicaffairs@usbr.gov.
For additional information, please contact Reclamation’s Becky Victorine at 916-978-4624 or Tulare Irrigation District’s Aaron Fukuda at 559-686-3425 or akf@tulareid.org. For information on the SJRRP, please visit www.restoresjr.net.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
