TEMECULA, Calif. - The Bureau of Reclamation and the City of San Diego will prepare a joint Environmental Impact Report/Environmental Impact Statement (EIR/EIS) for the North City Project. The project is the first phase of the Pure Water San Diego Program, a water and wastewater facilities plan to produce potable water from recycled water.
Eighty-five percent (85%) of the City’s water supply is imported from the Colorado River and northern California. The Pure Water Program will make San Diego more water independent by recycling a valuable and limited resource that is currently discharged to the Pacific Ocean.
The proposed North City Project will expand the existing North City Water Reclamation Plant and construct an adjacent Advanced Water Purification Facility with a purified water pipeline to Miramar Reservoir, providing about 15% of the City’s water supply. A project alternative would install a longer pipeline to deliver the product water to the larger San Vicente reservoir.
A notice of intent will be published in the Federal Register on August 5, 2016, starting the National Environmental Policy Act review. San Diego is filing a Notice of Preparation under the California Environmental Quality Act. Public meetings are scheduled on Aug. 23, 2016 and Aug. 25, 2016. The Notice of Preparation, Notice of Scoping Meetings, and a proposed Scope of Work are available at http://docs.sandiego.gov/citybulletin_publicnotices/CEQA/PN1300%20%23499621%20NOP2%20Date%208-4-16.pdf.
Interested parties are invited to comment on the scope of the draft EIS/EIR to help identify alternatives and issues that should be analyzed. Federal, State and local agencies, tribes, and the general public are welcome to participate in the environmental review process.
Comments should be mailed to Doug McPherson, Environmental Protection Specialist, Bureau of Reclamation, Southern California Area Office, 27708 Jefferson Avenue, Suite 202, Temecula, CA 92590, or submitted by e-mail to: dmcpherson@usbr.gov.
Source: Bureau of Reclamation
