Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan Programmatic EIR

The Modesto Irrigation District (MID), located in the northern portion of the San Joaquin Valley in Stanislaus County (Figure 1), conducted an evaluation of its water resources, on-farm systems, land use patterns and projections, infrastructure, and finances. As a result of this assessment, MID has developed and intends to implement an integrated and forward-looking Comprehensive Water Resources Management Plan (Proposed Program) to address MID's long-term customer and water management goals, and the specific infrastructure and operational needs throughout the MID irrigation conveyance system. The Proposed Program includes approximately 100 individual projects, which are distributed within MID irrigation district boundaries and support MID's goals through approximately 2040.

Executing the Proposed Program over the next decades would allow MID to continue providing a high-level of service to meet customers' evolving water delivery needs and increase operational reliability.

Considering the Proposed Program includes several individual projects that could have environmental impacts and will be implemented in phases, a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) as referenced in Section 15168 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines (Guidelines) has been prepared. The PEIR provides programmatic evaluation of the Proposed Program and facilitates future implementation of individual projects including those that are not anticipated to require additional project level environmental review. Additionally, the PEIR has been prepared on a series of actions that can be characterized as one large project and are related as individual activities carried out under the same authorizing statutory or regulatory authority and having generally similar environmental effects which can be mitigated in similar ways.

Significant Environmental Effects Anticipated

The PEIR evaluated the environmental impacts and mitigation measures associated with the proposed Program. The Proposed Program anticipated significant environmental effects related to biological resources and cultural and tribal resources but said effects would be reduced to a less-than significant level with the implementation of identified mitigation measures. All other environmental effects are anticipated to be less than significant or would not create an impact.