Environmental Impact

The Application states that Cal-Ore seeks Commission approval to enter into a loan transaction as required by §§ 818 and 851 of the PU Code, and that the purpose of the funds sought is to expand and improve its facilities. In particular, Cal-Ore indicates additions and improvements which include: 1) service to approximately 431 new subscribers;

2) construction of two new fiber routes from the Macdoel and Dorris central offices to points of interconnection with other local exchange carriers; 3) replacement of buried copper plant in the Dorris and Macdoel exchanges and addition of line extensions; and 4) addition of fiber termination equipment in the Dorris and Macdoel central offices.

The California Environmental Quality Act (Public Resources Code Section 21000, et seq., hereafter "CEQA) applies to discretionary projects to be carried out or approved by public agencies. A basic purpose of CEQA is to inform governmental decision-makers and the public about the potential, significant environmental effects of the proposed activities. (CEQA Guideline Section 15002).

The Commission must issue a discretionary decision without which the proposed project activities cannot proceed (i.e., the Commission must act on §§ 818 and 851 application), thus the Commission must act as either a Lead or Responsible Agency under CEQA. Generally, the Lead Agency is the public agency with the greatest responsibility for supervising or approving the project as a whole (CEQA Guideline Section 15051(b).)

In this instance, the County of Siskiyou (County) is the Lead Agency for the proposed project. The County prepared an Initial Study and approved a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the project in March 2002. A Notice of Determination approving the project and adopting the mitigation measures required by the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration was filed with the State Clearinghouse on May 7, 2002.

The Commission is a responsible Agency for the project under CEQA. CEQA requires that a Responsible Agency consider the Lead Agency's Environmental Impact Report, Negative Declaration or Mitigated Negative Declaration prior to acting upon or approving the project (CEQA Guideline Section 15050(b).) The specific activities that must be conducted by a Responsible Agency are contained in CEQA Guideline Section 15096.

We have reviewed and considered the Initial Study/Mitigated Negative Declaration prepared by the County and find that these documents are adequate for our review. The County identified potential environmental impacts resulting from the project related to erosion, surface water quality, dust control, the spread of noxious weeds, wetland habitat degradation, hazardous substance release, fire hazard, maintenance of public roads, paleontological resources, and archaeological resources. For each identified potential impact, the County adopted a mitigation measure that reduced the impact to a less than significant level, and identified a specific implementing agency and monitoring agency to ensure that the mitigation was performed in accordance with the specified timing.

We find that the County adopted feasible mitigation measures are reasonable and we adopt the mitigation measures as fully described in the County's mitigation and monitoring program for purposes of our approval.