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Mr. Michael Jewell June 13, 2019: Applicant consultant responds to latest Service information request specifying, among other points, that the area of Shallow Water Habitat in Smith Canal is 68 acres; and the approximate extent of water hyacinth control is 4.6 acres. June 27-28, 2019: Service informs Corps of its decision to treat this consultation as a reinitiation for that part of the Lower San Joaquin River Feasibility Study, and initiates regular conference calls to discuss consultation progress/needs (June 28, July 8, July 22, July 23, August 1). July 22, 2019: Teleconference. Service staff informs Corps that water hyacinth control is insufficient offset, and that staff will work on specification for what Service would deem sufficient. On behalf of applicant, Corps requests adding a test sheetpile installation in 2019 to this consultation request, and schedules a follow-up teleconference with applicant's consultant. July 23, 2019: Teleconference with Corps and applicant consultant; Service staff suggest 6.8 smelt credit purchase to offset gate closure effects on Smith Canal using "equivalence" calculations based on duration of gate operations during smelt spawning season'. August 1, 2019: Teleconference. Service and Corps discuss changes to project description, primarily related to credit purchase needed to offset effects to smelt. In consideration of the potential benefit of water hyacinth control in 4.6 acres of Smith Canal which partially overlaps the period of potential smelt occurrence, Service staff suggest further reducing the offset for gate closure effects on Smith Canal to 5.0 acres. August 5, 2019: Teleconference. Applicant consultant indicates acceptibility of changes to project description regarding credit purchase to offset effects to smelt. Service transmits draft BiOp to Corps with a request for written concurrence with the revised project description. August 13, 2019: Corps emails Service concurrence with the revised project description. BIOLOGICAL OPINION Description of the Action The action covered by this reinitiation concerns the construction of a tidal gate at Smith Canal as revised based on changes to the Federal nexus (construction through an Army permit), construction and proposed conservation measures for that structure, more detailed information on the construction and effects, additional information provided in response to Service requests (see Consultation History, above), and further Service analysis of this information. Notably, the 2016 LSJRFS BiOp dealt with the effects and conservation measures for the Smith Canal gate within 1 The mean hours per month of gate closure for the range of smelt spawning (January -July), with 1.66 feet sea level rise, for the modeled period of 1983-2014 is about 43 hours. Assuming this represents, on average, the better part of 9 tidal cycles on different days, it is "equivalent" to 10% of the spawning season rendered inaccessible, and tidal prism loss within and outside of Smith Canal. 6.8 credits is ^-10% of the area east of the Smith Canal gate (68 acres at mean high water). The benefit of the credits would be accrued continuously, while the effect of the project operation is discontinuous. Therefore, the credits in this amount are - for this project element action - considered to offset the effect. This calculation was made to frame the magnitude of effect, and is not considered precise. It was later reduced to 5.0 acres on the basis that 4.6 acres of water hyacinth control would have some benefit to smelt.