SFPUC 2001 Alameda Watershed Management Plan

III. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND IMPACTSM. HAZARDOUS MATERIALS AND HAZARDOUS WASTEUnder the Management Plan, the most important means of reducing potential exposure tohazardous materials is Action des9. Action des9 requires that a dust abatement program beimplemented as part of all construction projects. In addition, Action roa12 would require use ofbest management practices for road and trail siting and the construction procedures.Implementation of this action would control fugitive dust and reduce the potential for inhalationof contaminated dust.However, body contact with contaminated soil would remain a potentially significant impact ofManagement Plan implementation. Section IV.M-1 includes a mitigation measure that wouldreduce construction-related hazardous materials and hazardous waste impacts to a less thansignificant level. The impacts of day-to-day management activities that implement theManagement Plan are analyzed in this EIR and generally would not be subject to furtherenvironmental review. No unavoidable significant program-level hazardous materials impactshave been identified in this EIR. However, the San Francisco Planning Department wouldrequire examination of many specific management actions proposed in the Management Plan atthe time they are proposed for implementation to determine if further environmental review at amore detailed project-specific and site-specific level were necessary. Table II-1 identifies thespecific management actions that are likely to require such study.Operation-related ExposureThe Alameda Watershed Management Plan includes facilities that could result in increasedpublic visitation of the Watershed by providing new trails (Policies WA15.2 and WA15.4); golfcourse expansion (Policy WA18.1); and increased information regarding public activitiesavailable on the Watershed, such as public use area maps and brochures. These facilities includeinformation kiosks (Action pub3), a Watershed Visitor Education Center (Action pub4), publicrecreation area around the Sunol Water Temple (Action sun14), a commercial site (Actionsun19), overnight nature study area (Action sun20), and trail connections (Action sun21). Inaddition, provision of universal access at Watershed facilities could increase public use of theWatershed (Actions des8 and sun17). The resulting increase in human presence and potentialincrease in accessibility to remote areas of the Watershed could increase the likelihood of illegaldumping of wastes, including hazardous wastes. However, this potential generally exists in allwildlands and open space preserves and would not be considered a substantial threat to thepublic or the Watershed. Therefore, potential increase in illegal dumping of wastes would not bea significant impact of Plan implementation. In addition, Watershed patrols and managementactions detailed in the Hazardous Materials and Contamination section of the Management Planwould reduce the potential for illegal dumping of wastes.The Sunol Valley Golf Course would continue operations within the Watershed and could beexpanded under the Management Plan (Policy WA18.1), although specific actions for golf courseexpansion have not been proposed. Golf courses store and use fuels, solvents, and oils for golfcart operations and maintenance. Additionally, golf courses store and use fertilizers, pesticides,and herbicides to maintain greens and fairways. Consequently, expansion of the golf coursewould increase the use of hazardous materials within the Watershed and would increase the riskof hazardous materials release, resulting in a potentially significant impact ofNOP 96.223E: Alameda Watershed Management Plan III.M-9 ESA / 930385January 2001