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<br />7A - ATTACHMENT NO.2 <br />Page 11 <br /> <br />The Redwood City plant site is an industrial facility that produces <br />salt products by the manipulation of liquids through a series of evaporation <br />cells. On the Redwood City plan site, pumping is not used to draw down <br />the water table or to eliminate a wetland indicator. Instead, pumping is <br />used to move fluids through a series of evaporation cells to facilitate salt <br />production. The actions that altered the natural hydrology of the Redwood <br />City plant site occurred when the site was first developed decades ago <br />through the construction of the permitted exterior levee, which severed the <br />hydrological connection and tidal exchange between the site and the bay. <br />Because the actions that altered the hydrology on the Redwood City plant <br />site were "one-time" activities that were permitted and occurred before the <br />enactment of the [Clean Water Act], and because the on-site pumping is not <br />being done to continually alter the natural site hydrology, the normal <br />circumstances on the Redwood City plant site are to be viewed as the site <br />exists today, with normal salt production operations. Thus, the "normal <br />circumstances" for the Redwood City Cargill plant site are the <br />circumstances of an industrial site for making salt, not the circumstances of <br />the site that existed decades ago before the levees were built and before the <br />area was converted into an industrial salt-making facility. Consistent with <br />the direction in the 1987 Manual and the applicable Regional Supplement, <br />to determine if wetlands exist anywhere on the Redwood City plant site, the <br />plant site should be evaluated in its current state as a salt production facility <br />with pumps periodically moving water between the different cells, and not <br />based on any historical conditions at that site. <br /> <br />(Memorandum from Steven L. Stockton, P.E., Director of Civil Works, to <br />South Pacific Division Commander, re: the "normal circumstances" <br />concept as applied to Cargill's plant site at Redwood City, CA consisting of <br />salt production facilities (October 2, 2009), p. 8.) 3 <br /> <br />With this Memorandum, USACE Headquarters provided direction to District staff <br />regarding how to view the site in making permitting decisions. Under this direction, the <br />value of the site is to be determined based on its current characteristics, rather than based <br />on its historic characteristics. 4 <br /> <br />3/ On January 5,2010, USEPA sent a letter to USACE commenting on the October 2 <br />Memorandum. USEPA's role in the section 404 permitting process, and its recent letter, are <br />discussed below. <br /> <br />4/ On January 14, 2010, Save The Bay sent a letter to USACE disputing the analysis in <br />USACE Headquarters' October 2 Memorandum. Save the Bay requested USACE to reconsider <br />the conclusions set forth in the October 2 Memorandum. Save the Bay also stated that the <br />Saltworks property qualifies as a "special aquatic site" under USEP A regulations. (Letter from <br /> <br />11 <br />