DR-4482-CA Public Notice 001

INITIAL PUBLIC NOTICE: City of Watsonville Wastewater Treatment Facility Project Santa Cruz County, California | HMGP-4482-781-008

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 (HMGP) to the City of Watsonville to design, build, and install a new Main Electrical Facility within the existing Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) in Santa Cruz County, California. The proposed action would increase the level of flood protection to the 500-year flood event level and increase the level of seismic protection to a 2,475- year return interval event. 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 proposed Main Electrical Facility will be constructed on a concrete foundation on 24-inch cast-in-place piles with reinforced concrete masonry unit block walls to elevate the building slab and concrete deck to the design elevation above the 500-year BFE, with additional freeboard of 1.1 feet to account for potential local sea level rise projected by the California Ocean Protection Council’s Sea Level Rise Guidance for 2050. The approximate dimensions of the facility will be 5,877 square feet and will include an approximate 1,600 square-foot electrical building and an elevated concrete deck surrounding the electrical building. A new PG&E transformer and the existing PG&E utility service connection and transformer will be relocated from its current hazard-vulnerable location to the new relocated Main Electrical Facility. Two existing 600 kW emergency standby generators will be replaced by a new 2,000 kW emergency standby power generator and a new fuel tank that will be installed on the Main Electrical Facility concrete pad. The existing electrical equipment (main switchgear) will be relocated at the electrical building.

The project area is in the 100-year floodplain as depicted on the FEMA Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM) Numbers 06087C0393E, effective May 16, 2012. The FIRM shows that the project area lies within Zone AE, an area that has a 1-percent probability of flooding each year and where predicted floodwater elevations have been established.

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.