Aspen Continues To Support CDFW Under On-Call Contract

Since 2014, Aspen has been supporting the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) as part of an on-call contract to review or prepare CEQA documents for projects undertaken by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E). Until recently, the CDFW rarely acted as the CEQA lead agency for projects, instead relying on the CEQA or NEPA documents prepared by other lead agencies. In the last few years, more projects have been proposed where the CDFW has the sole or primary jurisdiction. As such, CDFW has expanded its role as a CEQA lead agency and awarded Aspen a five-year contract to help them fulfill this role.

Under this contract, Aspen has helped review or is in the process of reviewing several Initial Studies/Mitigated Negative Declarations for Incidental Take Permits and Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreements for PG&E operations and maintenance projects. Due to the vast PG&E system throughout the State, these projects can occur anywhere throughout PG&E’s territory, from the California desert to the Bay Area and further north. Thus far, Aspen has performed work for Region 3 (Bay Delta Region), Region 4 (Central Region), and Region 6 (Inland Deserts Region).

Many of PG&E’s projects focus on tree maintenance and potential impacts to streams or other water bodies with future opportunities ranging from pipeline maintenance or replacement to fish barrier removal. Example projects include the installation of gas pipeline valve automation facilities in Alameda County and vegetation management along numerous segments of a natural gas pipeline in unincorporated San Benito County. The later project included vegetation removal within 26 ephemeral stream crossings. Due to the critical nature of PG&E’s infrastructure, operations and maintenance is of primary importance, and ensuring appropriate CEQA review while meeting project deadlines is key.