We are excited to announce that Busby Biological Services, Inc. (BBS) has been selected as a finalist in the category of Outstanding Technical Document for the 2014 San Diego Chapter AEP Awards Event being held at Scripps Seaside Forum this Thursday, October 2! The Biological Technical Report (BTR) we prepared for SDG&E’s Sycamore Canyon to Penaquitos Substation Transmission Line Project is an extremely complex technical document that covers the existing biological resources along the entire approximately 17-mile (1,060-acre) 230 kilovolt (kV) transmission line alignment; the potential impacts to these biological resources; and the proposed avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures that will be used to assure impacts are below a level of significance.
This was BBS’ first opportunity to contract directly with TRC Solutions, Inc. (TRC) and to provide SDG&E with a technical document prepared solely by BBS. The preparation of the BTR was a challenge because the project was “fast tracked” by SDG&E, which meant that instead of having 4 to 5 months to complete the project, BBS had only 6 weeks to conduct the background research; conduct the vegetation mapping, special-status plant surveys, and special-status wildlife surveys; coordinate with Environmental Intelligence, LLC (EI) to obtain the wetland data; analyze and integrate all survey data into the report; and finalize the draft BTR. With this tight schedule, BBS developed a creative approach to an ongoing review process by coordinating with and providing draft portions of the document to TRC and SDG&E as these portions were completed for review and comment. Thus, the completed draft document had already incorporated many of the revisions, which significantly streamlined the preparation of the Proponent’s Environmental Assessment (PEA) and submittal to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
Although BBS is a small firm, we worked creatively, efficiently, and cooperatively with our clients within a narrow time frame to provided an exceptionally thorough and complete document that has received high compliments from both TRC and SDG&E.