Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation
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National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Olympic National Park Washington Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Draft Supplement to the Final Environmental Impact Statement December 2004 Draft Supplement to the Final Environmental Impact Statement Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Purpose and Need: The need for ecosystem restoration, dam removal, and sediment management has been explained in previous environmental impact statements, including the Final Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that this document supplements. In addition to analyzing two detailed dam removal and sediment management alternatives, the FEIS proposed mitigation for impacts of dam removal related to water supply, water quality, flooding, changes in groundwater levels, and impacts to fish. Since the release of the FEIS, several changes have occurred, and additional information has been gathered. These changes and new information have resulted in the need for different mitigation than that analyzed in the FEIS. This new mitigation is analyzed in this Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS). Type of Statement: This document is a draft supplement to the Final Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Environmental Impact Statement, which was distributed in November 1996. Abstract: The U.S. Department of the Interior is proposing mitigation measures to accomplish the following goals: (1) to protect municipal and industrial water users and two fish propagation facilities (hatcheries) during dam removal, (2) to provide flood protection at current levels, (3) to provide the ability to treat wastewater for those residents whose septic systems would be rendered ineffective, and (4) to protect listed fish to the maximum extent possible during and following dam removal. The means to accomplish these goals include a new surface water diversion and intake; a new water treatment plant to remove suspended solids and to supply water to hatcheries and to industrial and municipal users during and following dam removal; a municipal water treatment facility; strengthening, raising, and lengthening existing levees or homes as needed; providing flood protection or alternate supplies for affected groundwater users; providing assistance in connecting septic system users to a city wastewater treatment system; providing access to clean tributary habitat for bull trout; keeping the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife state chinook-rearing channel open during dam removal; modifying or moving the tribal fish hatchery; and creating rearing ponds on nearby Morse Creek to ensure the survival of Elwha chinook during dam removal. The SEIS also updates cost information, describes the selected mitigation for trumpeter swans, and proposes crushing and recycling concrete removed from the dams rather than transporting it to a land disposal site. The no-action alternative is the same as in the FEIS, as this SEIS is considered an addition to that document. The proposed actions are located in Clallam County, on the Olympic Peninsula, in Washington State. Lead/Cooperating Agencies: The National Park Service is the lead agency. The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, are cooperating agencies, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe is a cooperating tribal government on this SEIS. Public Comment: Comments from the public are encouraged and should be sent to the contact listed below. Comments will be accepted for 60 days from the publication in the Federal Register of the notice of availability of this SEIS. Please check the Elwha homepage <http://www/nps.gov/olym/elwha/ home.htm> for exact dates. Send comments to Dr. Brian Winter, Elwha Project Manager, Elwha Project Office, 826 East Front Street, Suite A, Port Angeles, WA 98362; telephone 360-565-1320. Summary Introduction This document supplements the second of two environmental impact statements that studied how to fully restore the Elwha River ecosystem and native anadromous fisheries in Clallam County, Washington. This restoration is directed by the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act, Public Law 102-495 (the Elwha Act). While this Draft Supplemental EIS (SEIS) has been designed as a stand-alone document for readability, it is legally an extension of the Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), which was finalized in November 1996. This means, for example, that although the no-action alternative is “no dam removal” as it was in the FEIS, the decision to remove the dams has been made and formalized in a 1996 “Record of Decision.” The impacts of this no- action alternative have simply been repeated in this SEIS for information purposes and to help readers understand the background of the action; it does not mean that the National Park Service or its cooperating agencies are revisiting the decision to remove the dams. In the early 1900s the free-flowing Elwha River on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State was blocked by two hydroelectric dams, neither of which was built with means to pass the 10 runs of native anadromous salmon and trout that had used the river for spawning and rearing for centuries. Since it was completed in 1913, the Elwha Dam has prevented migrating salmon and trout from using the upstream 70 miles of the mainstem and tributary habitat. The Glines Canyon Dam was completed farther upstream in 1927. These dams are the primary cause of the precipitous decline of salmonid populations to fewer than 3,000 naturally spawning fish today compared to an estimated 392,000 fish prior to dam construction. The loss of fish from 93% of the Elwha River has resulted in severe impacts to the entire Elwha River ecosystem due to the loss of nutrients and carcasses and the effects on aquatic and terrestrial vegetation and wildlife. To accomplish the purposes of the Elwha Act, two environmental impact statements (EISs) were completed to analyze alternatives. 1. The Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration: Final Environmental Impact Statement (June 1995) evaluated options for restoring the Elwha River ecosystem and native anadromous fisheries and is referred to in this document as the Programmatic FEIS. The “Record of Decision” that followed selected the removal of both dams as the only option that would accomplish full restoration. 2. The Elwha River Ecosystem Restoration Implementation: Final Environmental Impact Statement (November 1996) examined two ways of removing the dams, as well as the sediment stored behind them. It is referred to throughout this document as the FEIS or Implementation EIS. The “Record of Decision” selected “river erosion” as the preferred alternative for removing sediment. (The November 1996 FEIS included only specific changes to the DEIS, not the entire text of the draft document. Subsequently, a compilation of the DEIS and FEIS was prepared that included all the text of the draft, along with changes presented in the FEIS, plus responses to comments and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s “Biological Opinion.”). The FEIS is available by contacting the Elwha Restoration Project Office (826 East Front Street, Suite A, Port Angeles, WA 98362), or on the Elwha homepage at <http://www/nps.gov/olym/elwha/home.htm>. A supplemental EIS is prepared if either there is a “substantial change” to the selected action that is “relevant to environmental concerns,” or “there are significant new circumstances or information relevant iii Summary to environmental concerns and bearing on the selected action or its impacts.” The changes to water supply, water quality, and flood control mitigation analyzed in this SEIS are considered substantial, and so a supplement has been prepared. Any other changes to the proposed action not relevant to mitigation (such as the recycling of concrete removed from the dams, for example) or additional detail relevant to the proposed action (such as fisheries protection or revegetation of the reservoirs) are also included in this document. The choice to remove both dams and to follow the actions described for the river erosion alternative will remain the same and is not subject to further public comment. Work has not yet begun to remove the dams. Because most of the Elwha River watershed lies within Olympic National Park, the National Park Service has served as the lead agency for the Programmatic and the Implementation EISs, as well as this SEIS. Other agencies involved in the preparation of this EIS are the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Purpose and Need The need for ecosystem restoration, dam removal, and sediment management resulted in the Programmatic and Implementation EISs described above. In addition to analyzing two detailed dam removal and sediment management alternatives, the Implementation FEIS proposed mitigation for impacts of dam removal related to water supply, water quality, flooding, changes in groundwater levels, and impacts to fish. Several changes have occurred since the FEIS was released, prompting the participating agencies to consider a different direction for many of the original mitigation measures. For example, changes in the requirements for treatment of the city’s municipal water supply, the need to keep the state’s fish-rearing channel open during dam removal, and other factors have meant revising a treatment strategy for water quality. Other changes since the release of the Implementation FEIS that bear on the proposed