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Pleasanton -2- lions Wa)side and i)elucehi Parks Master Plan Project ('1WQS Place II)No:It 8841) Comment 2. Bar 1I,A1'oidance r f Impacts,()fthe Application. The Project proposes to fill 533 LF of Kottinger Creek. This is an unusually large amount of channel fill for a project that is not water dependent. HII of'the large amount of waters of the State proposed by the Project requires analysis in a CWA Section 404(b)(1)Alternatives Analysis. which has not yet been provided to the Water Board. The San Fra,w•icca fiat'Basin Water()milky Contra!Plan(Basin Plan)(Section 4.23)requires the use of a CWA Section 404(h)(I)Alternatives Analysis when reviewing requests Ior fill of waters of the State. When Water Board staff review an application for Clean Water Act(CWA)Section 401 water quality certification(certification)and/or waste discharge requirements(WDRs).staff first assess whether or not the project proponent has made all possible efforts to avoid and minimize impacts to waters of the State.before we consider the use of mitigation for a project's impacts. When the Water 13oards' use the term "avoidance and minimization", they are referring to avoiding impacts in waters and/or minimizing the lbotprint of those impacts. The"avoidance and minimization measures"that arc presented to supplement Box II of the Application consist of the type 01'measures that the Water Boards usually classify as"best management practices". 'l'herc is very little discussion of actual measures taken to avoid and/or minimize direct impacts to waters of the State. Measures taken to reduce the Project's lbotprint within waters of the state are not discussed in the discussion of'"avoidance and minimization." Without this information. the Application is incomplete. Comment 3. Box 12, Mitigation,of the Appiwation The Project proposes to use informally banked mitigation credits at the Mission Creek mitigation site. which has 0.60 acres of riparian habitat informally banked f i'mitigation. The riparian mitigation at the Mission Creek site consists of riparian enhancement. The proposed impact to Kottinger Creek consists of channel destruction. In-kind mitigation for channel destruction consists of channel creation. The Mission Creek mitigation site does not provide any channel creation mitigation credit. Since the mitigation present at the Mission Creek site is out-of-kind. much more mitigation than I:1 would he required. Also. for impacts to creek channels.the correct metric is linear feet for assessing impacts and mitigation. The Project proponent should anticipate that enhancement in excess ol'2.500 LF would probably be required as mitigation for 533 1.1'of channel destruction. Please contact me at(510)622-5680 or bwincsiciiwaterboards.ca.gov if you have any questions. All future correspondence regarding this Project should reference the CI WQS Place Number raid Site Number indicated at the top(Willis letter. Sincerely. Brian Wines I t 1,,n212 i+novo Brian Wines Water Resource Control Engineer South East Bay Counties Watershed Division