Thousand Palms Flood Control Project

Project Specifications

Client: Coachella Valley Water District

Location: Riverside County

Services: Environmental Review & Permitting, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources, Geospatial Sciences & Data Analysis

The Thousand Palms Flood Control Project consists of a series of levees and channels to convey flood waters away from developed areas, thereby providing flood hazard protection to the community of Thousand Palms. The project would create an approximately 550-acre floodway on the Coachella Valley Preserve, which is protected through implementation of the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conserva­tion Plan.

Aspen originally worked on this project in the late 1990s, to produce a joint EIS/EIR, under contract to the USACE, Los Angeles District. As part of the EIS/EIR effort, Aspen conducted a biological reconnais­sance of the project’s 40-square-mile study area and mapped the native plant communities throughout the area. The USACE was the federal lead agency for the project, and the Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) was the local sponsor and CEQA lead agency. The USACE approved the project with the publica­tion of a Record of Decision in 2000. However, the project was not built at that time due to issues encountered during the engineering of the approved project.

In 2011, the USACE initiated a new environmental review of the project to address development that had occurred in the area since approval of the 2000 EIS/EIR, as well as changing environmental condi­tions that had occurred since 2000 and project modifications that were developed to address these changed conditions. Aspen pre­pared this supplemental analysis, which was referred to as a “Preliminary Draft” Supplemental Envi­ron­men­tal Assessment (SEA), with the intent of finalizing and publishing the document at some point in the future, pending funding. The Preliminary Draft SEA was based on the 2000 EIS/EIR and focused on environmental impacts that could occur from changed conditions and/or project modifications. Aspen also conducted biological sur­veys for sensitive and listed wildlife species as well as vegetation, and produced extensive GIS-based maps to portray survey results. As with the 2000 EIS/EIR, the USACEs was the NEPA Lead Agency and CVWD was the local sponsor and CEQA Lead Agency.

Due to ongoing funding constraints, the USACE signed responsibility for engineering and design of the project over to the CVWD in 2012, which decided to proceed with the project independently of USACE funding. Aspen is currently preparing a new EIR/EIS for the project under contract to CVWD. The EIR/EIS will incorporate by reference all relevant information from previous analyses, but will be a separate, stand-alone document, which will be used by the USACE (Regulatory Division) to provide NEPA clearance for CVWD’s application for a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit.