Hetchy Reservoir that, in some years, could lead to flow changes that could adversely affect streamside meadows and other alluvial deposits. The SFPUC is implementing adopted WSIP PEIR mitigation in order to reduce potential impacts on the streamside meadows and other alluvial deposits along the Tuolumne River below this reservoir to less-than-significant levels. The SFPUC’s mitigation action will, in effect, address this impact and remedy it such that it would not continue to be an impact issue for a transfer such as proposed between OID and Brisbane. However, because the OID-Brisbane water transfer would contribute to this impact, this impact is considered to be significant for the OID-Brisbane water transfer element of proposed Baylands development, and Mitigation Measure 4.O-1b would require Brisbane to contribute a portion of the water purchased from OID to be used by SFPUC for controlled releases from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Thus, Brisbane would mitigate the impacts of the OID water transfer to marsh areas in the Poopenaut Valley to a less than significant level. See revisions to Mitigation Measure 4.O-1b in Final EIR Chapter 3.0. As noted, this measure to shape the flow releases from Hetch Hetchy Reservoir can only be implemented by the SFPUC as the owner and operator of the reservoir. Brisbane would contractually commit to contributing water this measure that the SFPUC is already in the process of implementing (see Response SFPUC-10).

Recognizing the potential for impacts on meadow and alluvial features along the Tuolumne River in the reach of the river between Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (O’Shaughnessy Dam) and Don Pedro Reservoir, with particular impact on meadow and alluvial features in this reach, including the Poopenaut Valley, the final paragraph on page 6-20 of the Draft EIR is revised to read as follows.

Would the Project, in conjunction with past, present, and reasonably foreseeable future projects, result in significant cumulative impacts on biological resources?

The geographic context for analysis of cumulative impacts on biological resources encompasses the area within the Brisbane city limits and surrounding neighborhoods, areas that are biologically linked (by, for example, birds, bats, fish or terrestrial wildlife) to the Baylands, and ecologically similar areas throughout the San Francisco Peninsula and within a five-mile radius of the Project Site (in relation to migratory species). Projects within the geographic scope of analysis include a variety of proposed urban land uses as listed in Table 6-2, above, and include Cumulative Projects 1-16 and 18-22. The geographic context for analysis of cumulative impacts on biological resources also encompasses the reach of the Tuolumne River between the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (O’Shaughnessy Dam) and Don Pedro Reservoir, with particular emphasis on the meadow and alluvial features in this reach, including the Poopenaut Valley.

The following text is added to page 6-21, immediately before the section entitled “Contributions of DSP, DSP-V, CPP, and CPP-V Scenarios to Cumulative Impacts.”

Cumulative Impacts along the Tuolumne River

As discussed in Section 4.O, as part of the proposed water transfer from OID, the SFPUC would hold 2,400 AFY in Hetch Hetchy Reservoir instead of releasing it down the Tuolumne River for capture by MID/Turlock Irrigation District (TID) in New Don Pedro