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5.12 TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION TABLE 5.12-10 Comparison of Cooling Tower Stack Parameters RCECa BEPa LECb Parameter 38°F 68°F 38°F 59°F 94°F Cell Ht,ft 60 40.14 45.8 Cell Diam,ft 32 36.7 14 Stack Velocity, ft/s 33.8 33.8 22.0 21.8 27.5 Exhaust Temp,OF 73.2 81 74 85 86.7 'From RCEC FSA Section 4.10, June 2007. bFrom Air Quality Appendix 5.1 B. The RCEC FSA found that: "The cooling tower vertical plume velocities are calculated to be somewhat higher for RCEC than BEP,which is not surprising since the heat load for RCEC is somewhat higher,the initial stack height and velocity are both higher for the RCEC cooling tower, and the RCEC cooling tower will have additional thermal buoyancy since it is a plume abated tower."8 The LEC cooling tower is expected to have performance more comparable to the BEP cooling tower than the RCEC tower,since its stack height is similar to BEP and it is not a plume-abated tower. The thermal modeling of the BEP cooling tower presented in the RCEC FSA (Plume Velocity Table 6) showed that the BEP cooling tower plume velocity fell below the CEC staff's 4.3 m/s significance threshold at an elevation of about 800 feet. We conclude that the LEC cooling tower plume velocity can also reasonably be expected to fall below 4.3 m/s before reaching the standard traffic pattern altitude of between 800 and 1,000 feet and,therefore,would be unlikely to cause significant turbulence. 5.12.3 Cumulative Effects A cumulative impact refers to a proposed project's incremental effect together with other closely related past,present,and reasonably foreseeable future projects whose impacts may compound or increase the incremental effect of the proposed project (Public Resources Code §21083; California Code of Regulations,title 14, § 15064(h), 15065(c),15130, and 15355). In July 2008,21 projects were in various stages of progress with the City of Lodi. Most of these projects are zoned residential,with a few office,mixed use,institutional,commercial, and industrial projects proposed. All of these projects are more than 4 miles from the proposed project,except for the improvements at the White Slough WPCF (Draft EIR issued March 28,2008),which is adjacent to the project site (Bereket,2008; City of Lodi,2008b). In July 2008, 72 projects9 were being processed with the San Joaquin County Building Department. These projects were located in Acampo, Escalon,Farmington,French Camp, Linden,Lodi,Lockeford,Manteca, Ripon,Stockton, and Tracy. The types of projects included residential projects such as new residences,additions and remodels to existing 8 Ibid.,p.4.10-31. 9 For the purposes of this discussion,San Joaquin County sorted its projects by project cost,and provided a list of the projects costing$25,000 or more. 5.12-30 SAC/371322/082330005(LEC_5.12_TRAFFIC_AND_TRANSPORTATION.DOC)