Westlands Water District (District) is pleased to announce the closing of the public comment period related to the Draft Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) for the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan (VCIP). As Lead Agency for the PEIR under the California Environmental Quality Act, the District extends sincere appreciation to all interested parties, community members and governmental agencies who provided valuable input during this phase. The District will respond to the comments it has received as part of its preparation of the final PEIR for the District Board’s consideration. The comments will be instrumental in shaping the District’s Board consideration of the PEIR.
Should the District exercise its discretion and approve VCIP, the program would be located in the Fresno County portion of the District on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The proposed VCIP program provides a blueprint for the District, working in coordination with Golden State Clean Energy (GSCE) to develop clean energy generating and storage facilities including supporting collection and transmission infrastructure on 136,000 acres of repurposed District-owned and privately-owned re-purposed farmland, with an overall generating and delivery capacity of up to 21,000 MW. VCIP and the related joint collection and transmission corridor planning effort are proposed to be key components of the District’s effort to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and would support a sustainable farming future for the District and its landowners.
If approved, the VCIP program will also involve evaluating and selecting potential acquisition of efficient VCIP collection and transmission corridors that optimize land use and reduce environmental impacts, while limiting the program impacts on landowner farming operations. Should the District decide to move forward, the success of VCIP will require the prompt evaluation and establishment of these collection and transmission corridors. Consequently, GSCE has started the process of identifying potential collection and transmission corridors for consideration by the District.
Further updates will be provided as key planning milestones are reached. For more information or to view documentation related to the planning process and corridor evaluation, please visit Environmental Docs – Westlands Water District.
No. 783