Fire Management Plan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Lower Klamath Project FERC No. 14803 Fire Management Plan February 2021 Fire Management Plan Prepared for: Klamath River Renewal Corporation Prepared by: Renewal Corporation Technical Representative: AECOM Technical Services 300 Lakeside Drive, Suite 400 Oakland, California 94612 Seth Gentzler Shannon Leonard River Design Group 311 SW Jefferson Avenue Corvallis, Oregon 97333 Jack Zunka Scott Wright CEA Consulting 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 950 San Francisco, California 94104 Kirk Marckwald February 2021 2 Fire Management Plan Table of Contents Executive Summary....................................................................................... 8 1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 9 2. Background and Overview of Fire in the Region .............................. 11 2.1 Environmental Conditions and Fire History .................................................................................... 11 2.2 Government and Agency Fire Mitigation Planning ......................................................................... 12 2.3 Fire Risks Associated with Power Generation and Transmission ................................................. 13 3. Fire Suppression Agencies, Resources, and Considerations ......... 15 3.1 Fire Support and Services ............................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Existing Management Resources and Strategies .......................................................................... 18 3.2.1 Fire Detection .................................................................................................................. 19 3.2.2 Prevention and Preparedness ........................................................................................ 22 3.2.3 Water Sources and Access ............................................................................................. 23 4. Regulations and Requirements ......................................................... 25 4.1 Federal ............................................................................................................................................. 25 4.2 Oregon Department of Forestry Klamath-Lake District ................................................................. 26 4.3 CalFire Siskiyou Unit ........................................................................................................................ 29 5. Near-term Measures: Construction-Related Activities .................... 33 5.1 Roles and Responsibilities .............................................................................................................. 33 5.1.1 During Dam Decommissioning and Removal - Kiewit ................................................... 33 5.1.2 During Restoration and Monitoring - RES ...................................................................... 34 5.1.3 Safety Officer ................................................................................................................... 36 5.2 Agency Contacts .............................................................................................................................. 38 5.3 Fire Prevention and Suppression Measures and Equipment ....................................................... 38 5.3.1 Regulations and Requirements ...................................................................................... 38 5.3.2 Standards and Best Practices ........................................................................................ 39 5.3.3 Fire Management Preparation Checklist ....................................................................... 42 6. Long-Term Fire Management Measures ........................................... 43 6.1 Term .................................................................................................................................................. 43 6.2 Objectives and Overview ................................................................................................................. 44 6.3 Conditions after Dam Removal ....................................................................................................... 44 6.4 Post-Removal Management Measures .......................................................................................... 45 February 2021 3 Fire Management Plan 6.4.1 Monitored Detection System (MDS) ............................................................................... 46 6.4.2 Chipper ............................................................................................................................. 48 6.4.3 Copco Lake Hydrant System ........................................................................................... 48 6.4.4 Dry Hydrants .................................................................................................................... 49 6.4.5 Boat Launches ................................................................................................................. 50 6.4.6 Aerial River Access Points (ARAPs) ................................................................................. 50 6.4.7 Dip Tanks ......................................................................................................................... 54 6.5 Evaluation of Post-Removal Fire Risk ............................................................................................. 55 6.5.1 Burn Probability and Risk of Ignition .............................................................................. 56 6.5.2 Firefighting Capabilities .................................................................................................. 58 7. Renewal Corporation Commitments ................................................. 63 8. Agency Consultation ........................................................................... 64 9. References ........................................................................................... 67 Appendix A – Reax Engineering, Inc., Qualitative Wildfire Risk Analysis of the Klamath River Renewal Project ....................................... 70 Appendix B – Spatial Informatics Group, Review of Reax Analysis .... 126 Appendix C – Agency Approval Letters .................................................. 128 List of Tables Table 3-1. Fire protection agencies in the ASE area, updated table from BOR & CDFG (2012). ...................... 15 Table 3-2. Fire services in the analysis area. ....................................................................................................... 18 Table 3-3. Comparison of common firefighting helicopters................................................................................. 24 Table 4-1. 2019 ODF fire season minimum requirements (ODF, 2019). ........................................................... 26 Table 4-2. Fire precautionary measures required by California Public Resources Code (PRC) and applicable during any times of the year when burning permits are required unless otherwise stated. ............................................................................................................................. 29 Table 5-1. Kiewit primary leads for fire protection and control. .......................................................................... 34 Table 5-2. RES leads for fire protection and control. ........................................................................................... 35 Table 5-3. Fire management preparation checklist for the Contractors............................................................. 42 Table 6-1. Miles of transmission and distribution lines removed by the Proposed Action (Renewal Corporation Technical Representatives, 2018)............................................................................. 45 Table 6-2. Post-removal ground access points as shown in Figure 9. ................................................................ 50 Table 6-3. Change in modeled burn probability within ASE area from pre-restoration to post- restoration fuels. ............................................................................................................................. 56 Table 6-4. Percentage of ASE area (568.9 mi2) covered from Reax viewshed analysis .................................... 59 Table 6-5. Results for mean burn probability from Reax’s wildfire spread modeling ........................................ 60 Table 8-1. Agency personnel consulted during development of the Fire Management Plan. ........................... 64 February 2021 4 Fire Management Plan List of Figures Figure 1. Aerial Suppression Extent (ASE) in the Klamath Basin. ....................................................................... 10 Figure 2. Map of fire hazard in the Klamath River basin generated using MODIS by the USFS. Figure from BOR & CDFG (2012). .............................................................................................................. 12 Figure 3. Fire threat map of the Klamath Basin showing California Public Utilities Commission fire threat tier data. ................................................................................................................................ 14 Figure 4. Land ownership around the analysis area. Figure from BOR & CDFG (2012).................................... 16 Figure 5. Map of hospitals, fire stations, and major fire routes near the Klamath Dams. From BOR & CDFG (2012). Note, Klamath Falls Interagency Fire Center is now an air