SFPUC 2001 Alameda Watershed Management Plan

I. SUMMARYOperations and maintenance activities include stormwater control, hazardous materialsmanagement, facility maintenance, road maintenance, vegetation and pest control, slide repair,controlled burning, etc. Unless appropriate precautions were employed, any of these activitiescould result in inadvertent impacts to water quality and Watershed resources. Impropermanagement of nursery operations and golf course maintenance could result in the presence ofpesticides and fertilizers in runoff draining to Alameda Creek, which would be a significant waterquality impact. Management actions included in the Management Plan would reduce thesepotential impacts to a less than significant level.Natural Resources. Operations, maintenance, and construction activities could directly disturbnative plant communities as a result of trampling, removing, or continued or repeated disruptionof vegetation. Such disturbance could modify the structure, composition, and diversity of theplant community. These activities could also lead to an increase in invasive plant species. Inaddition, construction could disturb trees (either through damage or removal) that providepotential roosting and nesting sites for various raptors and other birds that are protected by CDFGCode 3503 and 3503.5 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. If grazing is not properly managed,grazing could damage vegetation, increase invasive plant species, and increase erosion.Management actions included in the Management Plan would reduce these potential impacts to aless than significant level.Air Quality. Construction projects would generate fugitive 2 dust (including PM-10) and othercriteria air pollutants primarily through excavation activities, exhaust from constructionequipment and haul truck trips, and exhaust from construction-worker commute trips.Management actions included in the Management Plan would reduce these potential impacts to aless than significant level.Fire Management. Implementation of some road management actions could result inrevegetation of roads and may lead to herbaceous fuel loading and an increase in wildfire risk.This increase in wildfire risk could substantially interfere with emergency response plans andexpose people or structures to a substantial risk of loss. The Management Plan calls for use ofprescribed burns. The risks of using fire to modify fuels are primarily from smoke production,exposure of visitors to fire outbreak under difficult rescue conditions, and potential escape of thefire from prescribed burn boundaries. Thus, prescribed burns would pose a potentially significantsafety risk to SFPUC staff, visitors, adjacent landowners, and occupants. Management actionsincluded in the Management Plan would reduce these potential impacts to a less than significantlevel.Cultural Resources. Watershed operations, maintenance, and construction activities could resultin potentially significant damage to both known or unknown cultural resources. Activitiesinvolving surface disturbance, such as ground clearing, discing, grading, and prescribed burns, orexcavation within identified zones of cultural sensitivity, would have the greatest potential fordisturbance of previously unidentified cultural resources. Management actions included in the2 “Fugitive” emissions generally refer to those emissions that are released to the atmosphere by some means otherthan a stack or tailpipe.NOP 96.223E: Alameda Watershed Management Plan I-6 ESA / 930385January 2001