3.4 Biological Resources
SO-5
The soft bottom habitat within SO-5 contains a mixture of coarse sand and sand/silt sediments. Fish,
infaunal and macroinvertebrates, are common and similar to other locations in the Bight and the project
itself. As shown in Table 3.4-5, the SO-5 borrow site has few constraints and the dredge area is located
over 500 feet from reefs and over 600 feet from historical kelp areas. Proposed pipeline and mono buoy
locations may be near potential reef and kelp habitat.
MB-1
The sand sediments within this borrow site tend to be coarser sands than found at other borrow sites. As
shown in Table 3.4-3, the species list from the monitoring station near this borrow site contains many of
the common infaunal species found throughout the Bight for the inner shelf community but also contains
some species indicative ofcoarser sandysediments (e.g., sand dollars, the amphipod Tiburonella viscana,
and the presence of the sand lancelet).
There are several artificial reefs and sunken wrecks which support sensitive resources located near the
MB-1 borrow site, so the dredge area has been located to maximize the buffer zone to all resources (Table
3.4-5). The nearest artificial reef is the Mission Bay Bridge Wreckage Site No. 1 located approximately
1,000 feet to the south. Other sunken structures are the NOSC Tower and the Ruby E, which are 1,500
and 2,000 feet distant, respectively (refer also to Section 3.6). There are no resources near proposed
pipeline locations and mono buoy locations.
SS-1
Table 3.4-3 presents the species list and abundance for Monitoring Station 1944, located upcoast from
this borrow site. While species present at this location are typical species found throughout the Bight, this
location tends to have fewer organisms than borrow sites further to the north.
As shown in Table 3.4-5, there are no sensitive resources or habitats in close proximity to the proposed
borrow site. No kelp canopy was mapped in the vicinity in 1999. In 1997 kelp was mapped about 3,000
feet north of the site. Kelp bed persistence off Imperial Beach is low to moderate.
Regional Beach Sand Project EIR/EA
Page 3.4-39
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