DR-4382-CA Public Notice 007

INITIAL PUBLIC NOTICE: Wildland Fire Mitigation Through Fuels Reduction, Sacramento County, Sacramento, CA │ HMGP-4382-285-046

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) intends to provide federal financial assistance under the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to the Sacramento County Municipal District (SMUD) in Sacramento County, California, to provide wildfire hazard mitigation. The project area comprises twelve vegetation management subareas (totaling 375,850 acres) within rural areas of the County that are at particularly high risk for wildfires. The proposed action would reduce wildfire hazards by reducing fuels within and adjacent to SMUD's transmission and distribution line rights-of-way (ROW). Specific treatment areas requiring vegetation management have not yet been identified within the twelve subareas and would only be identified once SMUD maps areas at highest risk of wildfire. SMUD anticipates that between 5 and 20 percent of the total length of powerlines in the twelve subareas, or approximately 118 miles or powerlines, would require treatment. Pursuant to Executive Order 11988 (Floodplain Management) and FEMA’s implementing regulations at Title 44 of the Code of Federal Regulations Part 9, FEMA hereby provides interested parties with a notice of its intent to carry out an action affecting a floodplain.

The purpose of the proposed action is to reduce wildfire hazards. The proposed action consists of 1) identifying and mapping areas within SMUD's service territory that are at high risk of wildfire spread due to excessive fuel loading and the presence of hazardous trees inside and adjacent to powerline ROWs and 2) conducting hazardous fuels and hazard tree removal within those areas as needed. Vegetation removal activities would be determined based on site-specific conditions and may include the use of hand-held and mechanized equipment. Decisions regarding trees to be removed or limbed would be made by a Registered Professional Forester and/or Certified Arborist. Generally, trees and brush would be masticated, hauled, or lifted from the site as site conditions dictate. If maintenance activities require herbicide use, SMUD would follow all best management practices (BMPs) required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Portions of the project area are within the 100-year floodplain as depicted on the 84 FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) that cover the twelve subareas. The FIRMs show that the subareas contain the following FEMA-designated flood zones: Zone AE, an area that has a 1-percent probability of flooding every year and where predicted floodwater elevations have been established, and Zone A, an area that has a 1-percent probability of flooding every year and where predicted floodwater elevations have not been established. The majority of the areas in Zones A and AE are associated with the American, Cosumnes, Mokelumne, and Sacramento Rivers and their tributaries. Minimal portions of the project area contain other FEMA-designated flood zones with a 1-percent probability of flooding each year, including Zone A99 (temporarily increased flood risk due to the building or restoration of a flood control system), Zone AE (floodway), Zone AH (flooding in the form of a pond with an average depth of 1 to 3 feet), and Zone AO (sheet flow flooding with an average depth of 1 to 3 feet).

Additional information about FEMA’s proposed action, including maps showing the potential impacts on floodplains, may be obtained by writing the FEMA Region IX Environmental Officer at FEMA, 1111 Broadway, Suite 1200, Oakland, California 94607, or fema-rix-ehp-documents@fema.dhs.gov, or calling (510) 627-7027. All requests should be received within 15 days after publication of this notice.