alluvial features along the Tuolumne River that support meadow and riparian habitat resulting from the SFPUC’s plan to increase diversions from the Tuolumne River by 2 million gallons per day (mgd). The SFPUC indicates that this mitigation measure is designed to address its impact, but not that of the additional diversion increase associated with the proposed OID transfer that would divert an additional 2.14 mgd (average annual) from the Tuolumne River.

The SFPUC is now developing a plan to provide controlled releases that will “time and shape” the annual releases that occur from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to provide mitigation for the potential effects of the SFPUC’s increased diversion from the Tuolumne River of 2 mgd and also to provide for better downstream habitat management overall (as part of the broader UTREP program).

As noted in the Brisbane Baylands Draft EIR (p. 4.O-42), the mitigation measure to provide controlled releases to recharge groundwater in streamside meadows and other alluvial deposits that the SFPUC adopted as part of its WSIP, and is implementing, would effectively remedy the impact such that it would not continue to be an issue for a subsequent small-scale water transfer such as the 2 mgd transfer proposed between OID and Brisbane.

However, based on discussions with the SFPUC, the City of Brisbane understands that wheeling the proposed OID water transfer through the SFPUC system contributes to this impact for which the SFPUC is implementing mitigation and therefore the City of Brisbane should contribute to the mitigation effort. Mitigation Measure 4.O-1b is revised to incorporate two options for Brisbane to contribute to the mitigation effort: either use some of the OID transfer water to contribute water for storage in SFPUC’s Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to support controlled reservoir releases and/or fund or implement other ecological monitoring and adaptive management efforts in the Poopenaut Valley to improve and protect the long-term sustainability of the alluvial meadow habitats.

Following the first full paragraph on page 4.O-41, additional text is to read as follows:

As part of the SFPUC’s controlled release mitigation measure, the SFPUC will gather baseline data regarding the extent, species composition and condition of the existing meadow vegetation within the Poopenaut Valley. Some of these environmental baseline data may be available as a result of current study efforts in the Poopenaut Valley. As needed, the SFPUC will augment this information by carrying out vegetation composition surveys in the meadow before implementing the WSIP and at 5 year intervals after WSIP implementation to assess the efficacy of mitigation releases in maintaining or improving the percentage cover of meadow species as described by Ratliff (1985). The basic methodology for baseline vegetation