Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Environmental Review topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Resident urges extended comment period on Army Corps supplemental EIR for Napa River flood wall
Summary
A resident told the Board of Supervisors a 30‑day comment period on an Army Corps supplemental environmental impact report for a proposed flood wall is insufficient and urged county action to seek an extension and consider environmental impacts.
Chris Malan, a Napa resident, told the Board of Supervisors during public comment that the Army Corps of Engineers issued a supplemental environmental impact report for a proposed roughly 2,500‑foot flood wall on the Napa River with only a 30‑day public comment period and asked the county to seek a longer review window.
Malan said the Army Corps is the lead agency and the Napa County Flood and Water Conservation District is the sponsoring agency for the project, which he described as a West‑side flood wall running from River Terrace to the Elks Club. “There’s so much environmental damage that happens with flood walls that, to have a 30‑day comment period to me is not fair,” Malan said, urging more time for public review and noting the river’s impairment from sediment, pathogens, mercury and PCBs.
County staff responded that the transcript notation “AG” in the Groundwater Sustainability Agency fund listing was a truncation of the word “agency,” and reminded the public that the agency’s budget would be presented as a special district at the June 17 hearing. Staff did not commit to extending the Army Corps public‑comment deadline on the flood‑wall EIR during the session recorded in the transcript.
Why it matters: flood‑control projects can alter riparian habitat, remove trees and change river hydraulics; Malan told supervisors most remaining riparian habitat along sections of the river is limited and said the community should be given more time to review technical documents. He said prior county projects that included concrete or in‑channel work had been put on hold due to costs, and he questioned how the supplemental EIR was circulated to the public.
What the transcript records: Malan asked who in the county to contact about an extension; county staff listed contact options for public comment generally (publiccomment@countyofnapa.org and the clerk of the board office phone number) but did not indicate an extension had been requested or granted.
Next steps: the Army Corps is the lead agency for the document Malan referenced; the county will take up the Groundwater Sustainability Agency budget as a special district on June 17, and anyone seeking to file comments was directed to the county’s public‑comment email and clerk of the board phone line in the interim.
