ITEM:		CONSENT CALENDAR
3.	CONSIDER EXPENDITURE OF FUNDS FOR ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE WITH IFIM TO ANALYZE INSTREAM FLOW REQUIREMENTS FOR THE CARMEL RIVER
Meeting Date:			March 16, 2015	Budgeted:	Yes
From:			David J. Stoldt	Program/	Augment Water Supply
			General Manager	Line Item No.: Account No.	1-8-1 5-7860.19
Prepared By:			Larry Hampson	Cost Estimate:	$50,000
General Counsel Review: N/A
Committee Recommendation: The Administrative Committee reviewed this item on March 9, 2015 and recommended approval.
CEQA Compliance: N/A

SUMMARY: Staff proposes an amendment to an existing agreement for services with Normandeau Environmental Consultants (Normandeau) for assistance to test whether steelhead Habitat Suitability Criteria (HSC) developed by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFW) for the Big Sur River can be applied to the Carmel River. This test is part of an ongoing project to apply the Instream Flow Incremental Methodology (IFIM) to address water rights issues and steelhead habitat management in the Carmel River. Normandeau would provide services as described in Exhibit 3-A, including field visits to the Carmel River, assessment of data, and a recommendation of appropriate HSC for the Carmel River. This is an important component of the analyses required for developing a revised set of instream flow requirements.

RECOMMENDATION: Staff recommends approval of the expenditure of up to $50,000 for additional assistance with developing an IFIM to revise instream flow requirements for the Carmel River. If this item is adopted with the Consent Calendar, the General Manager would be authorized to amend an agreement for services with Normandeau Environmental Services and increase that agreement from a not-to-exceed (NTE) amount of $50,000 to a NTE of up to $100,000.

IMPACTS TO STAFF/RESOURCES: Funds for the spring portion of this work are identified in the proposed FY 2014-15 Budget, Program Line Item 1-8-1, Other Water Supply Projects – IFIM feasibility studies. The estimated costs include $6,000 for study planning, $30,000 for field work, and $9,000 for Data Analysis and interpretation for a total cost of $45,000. These expenses include both spring and fall work (expenses for fall work would be budgeted in FY 2015-16). This amount presumes that the District will provide one staff person for field work and that CDFW will provide an additional field crew. CDFW has agreed to provide a crew for spring work. Staff is requesting an additional $5,000 as a contingency amount.

BACKGROUND: The Board previously approved an expenditure of up to $50,000 for IFIM assistance at their June 17, 2013 meeting. Since that time, staff and Normandeau representatives developed a draft Request for Proposals for a study and requested input from stakeholders including the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the Carmel River Steelhead Association, the Carmel Valley Association, Trout Unlimited, and the State Water Resources Control Board. As a result of this interaction, CDFW proposed to cooperate with MPWMD in developing Habitat Suitability Criteria (HSC) and suggested that recently completed work in the Big Sur River by CDFW could apply to the Carmel River.

HSC are an important component of instream flow modeling and are a description of the relative quality of aquatic habitat components, such as water depth, water velocity, substrate type, and instream or overhead cover, on a scale of 0 (not-suitable) to 1 (optimal), to the species of interest (Carmel River steelhead). Developing HSC for a stream can be labor intensive. Thus, using HSC from another stream can save time and cost in the development of an instream flow model.

IFIM is an accepted scientific approach to quantifying the effects to aquatic habitat from water diversions at various levels of instream flows. Results from this work can provide the basis for revising existing instream flow requirements necessary to protect steelhead and their habitat in the Carmel River. The District, NMFS, CDFW, and California American Water (Cal-Am) are interested in updating these instream flow requirements in order to best manage steelhead populations in the Carmel River.

EXHIBIT

3-A Normandeau Environmental Consultants Proposed Study Plan for Testing Transferability of Habitat Suitability Criteria in the Carmel River

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