SFPUC 2001 Alameda Watershed Management Plan

III. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING AND IMPACTSO. GROWTH INDUCEMENTSection 15126.2 (d) of the state CEQA Guidelines requires agencies to address potential growthinducingeffects of their actions. Growth-inducing effects are defined as those effects that couldfoster economic or population growth or the construction of additional housing, either directly orindirectly, in the surrounding environment. Growth-inducing effects include projects that wouldremove obstacles to population growth (a major expansion of a wastewater treatment plant might,for example, allow for more construction in service areas). Increases in the population may taxexisting community service facilities, requiring construction of new facilities that could causesignificant environmental effects. The Guidelines also require the analysis of certaincharacteristics of projects which may encourage and facilitate other activities that couldsignificantly affect the environment, either individually or cumulatively.The primary purpose of the Alameda Watershed Management Plan is to maintain and improvesource water quality to protect public health and safety. An important component of this purposeis to protect the natural resources of the Watershed. This purpose and the goals, policies, andmanagement actions of the Management Plan have no potential to foster economic or populationgrowth, or the construction of additional housing, either directly or indirectly. Implementation ofthe Management Plan would not remove obstacles to population growth, but would protect anexisting water supply. Over the long-term, implementation of the Management Plan wouldprovide for additional water storage in reclaimed mining pits. Water storage reservoirs would bedeveloped incrementally as mining were completed. The source of water to fill the reservoirs isnot known. Possible water sources for storage in the reclaimed pits are local water, includinglocal runoff; imported water from the Hetch Hetchy Project or the Delta using the South BayAqueduct; and recycled water from the Livermore Valley. It is unlikely that groundwater wouldbe a source of water due to the small volume of extant groundwater in the Sunol Valley. Thewater stored in the reservoirs would be used as a supply resource in dry years. The existingSFPUC water system may prove to be inadequate in the event of an extended drought. Analysisof a design drought shows water demand at about 300 mgd, whereas the firm yield of the entirewater system is about 240 mgd. The reclaimed mining pit reservoir storage volume wouldcorrespond to a firm yield of about seven mgd, about 11 percent of the existing shortfall.Therefore, water stored in the reservoirs would only partially reduce the existing water supplyshortfall and would not induce growth by, for example, potentially serving substantial numbers ofnew customers or allowing SFPUC to expand its service area (SFPUC, 1999).REFERENCES – Growth Inducement_________________________San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), SFPUC Water Resource Strategy,Technical Memorandum 14/15, 1999.NOP 96.223E: Alameda Watershed Management Plan III.O-1 ESA / 930385January 2001