WAPA’s Northern California construction project ‘a fairy tail’

The Western Area Power Administration continues to make investments to support maintenance and upgrades to its more than 1,300 miles of transmission lines and 25 substations across Northern California.

While WAPA’s Sierra Nevada regional office leads these construction and investment efforts, ensuring power flows to its customers and millions of Californians, it’s also focused on fairy tales – of the crustacean variety.

With construction underway on WAPA’s soon-to-be-established Beale Substation, SN is paying particular attention to California’s native vernal pool fairy shrimp. The site, located on Beale Air Force Base 15 miles east of Yuba City, not only aims to ensure reliable power accessibility to one of America’s Air Force installations but also mitigate the impact on this freshwater shrimp species.

According to Jeffrey Trow, a biologist with WAPA’s SN office, the fairy shrimp lives a very precarious lifestyle.

“These are freshwater shrimp, and they have adapted to the area,” Trow said. “They live in these little vernal pools that form yearly when it rains, forming little clay lenses under the surface. After it rains, these pools appear in the middle of grasslands, and freshwater shrimp emerge when the water reaches a certain temperature. They lay their eggs in a capsule that embeds in the clayey mud as pools dry and can remain there for decades, waiting for a rain event to trigger a hatch. They are a very fragile animal.”

Trow, who entered the electrification industry in 2007 with Southern California Edison, said these vernal pools used to be found prominently throughout California’s Central Valley. Over time, much of the traditional habitat for the shrimp has transitioned to becoming both farmlands and urban environments. To help ensure the shrimp’s protection, the species was included on both the California threatened and endangered species lists and the federal registry. The shrimp was declared endangered in 1994.

“Actually seeing a project get to its the end point, especially one you’re deeply involved with, is very rewarding, especially when it’s for the public good.”

As the Beale interconnection’s construction continues, biologists like Trow work to ensure WAPA adheres to established environmental impact regulations. These include a thorough environmental impact statement produced amongst numerous federal, state and local stakeholders, as well as facilitating the necessary permitting to support the project.

“We have to think about all the measures that are contained in those documents,” Trow said. “Once we go out and collect data, we need to know what we’re looking for and how it relates to the permits. Then, you know how to report the project’s progress to the proper agencies. And the fact we’re interconnecting to a military base adds a level of stewardship to the program as each military installation has an environmental stewardship responsibility to manage their own natural and cultural resources.”

Project moves forward

The Beale substation interconnection project has been planned for construction since the request for the interconnection was formally made in March 2016. The project aims to provide both a reliable and resilient electrical transmission system with the addition of a redundant electrical interconnection, ensuring the Air Force base’s critical missions of reconnaissance and early warning missile detection are never interrupted.

Planners are targeting full completion in December 2025, when the substation is scheduled to be fully energized. Jeffrey Miller, SN’s Construction Manager, said work on the substation began June 3 of this year and construction is scheduled to be completed on March 31, 2025.

“It feels really good to get to the point of having construction underway finally,” said Miller. “This is the first greenfield substation for SNR in over 10 years and the first for SNR’s newly formed construction department. I’m excited for the project and what our new department is accomplishing.”

While the project continues to move forward, Miller emphasized the importance of Trow and his team’s work in ensuring WAPA maintains its commitment to environmental stewardship.

In any construction project WAPA participates in, environmental impact is always at the top of the list. Ideas and strategies are sought to protect and mitigate the impact on endangered or threatened species in an effort to find a balance between ensuring transmission lines and structures remain reliable and up to date while disturbing the native species as little as possible.

Mitigation key to shrimp survival

Trow highlighted a couple of ongoing programs that have been adopted to support mitigation efforts. These include the purchase of acreage in nearby wetlands, where some of the vernal pool fairy shrimp can be relocated. This approach isn’t unlike purchasing carbon credits, but rather focuses on animals and species that require more delicate support. Trow also said WAPA can create the shrimp’s environment, or purchase credits from a bank where an agreement is put in place to conserve the land in perpetuity.

“This approach supports an ecosystem that used to be everywhere throughout the Central Valley but has now become very limited,” Trow said. “And since it’s local, we can go out to the mitigation bank and see the habitat we’re helping to maintain.”

Beyond the vernal pool fairy shrimp, Trow also highlighted another of the regulatory-driven programs he supports that ensures the Beale substation project remains on time and within compliance.

“We’re also working under the federal Clean Water Act, which includes a water certification for the water quality aspect of the project. Then, we have biological opinions that dictate the outcome of permitting requests, which can affect the project’s timeline. We work within those permits to ensure that any necessary design changes to the project are documented correctly. When construction has been completed, we ensure that the temporary areas we worked on have been restored. It’s quite a process.”

Trow highlighted that even as a biologist, he’s always focused on seeing projects built and come to completion.

“Seeing a project get to the endpoint, especially one you’re deeply involved with, is very rewarding, especially when it’s for the public good.”