San Joaquin Kit Fox Surveys

San Joaquin River Quality Improvement Project
2018 San Joaquin Kit Fox Surveys

Prepared by: H. T. Harvey & Associates
March 2019

To reduce the amount of salt and selenium delivered to the San Luis Drain and Mud Slough through the
Grassland Bypass Project, the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (SLDMWA) Grassland Basin
Drainers implemented Phase I of the San Joaquin River Water Quality Improvement Project (SJRIP). The
approximately 6,000-acre property is located west of the city of Firebaugh, in Fresno County, California. The
irregularly-shaped site is bordered on the north by the Main Canal and on the south by the Delta-Mendota
Canal. The eastern edge extends nearly to Fairfax Avenue (Figure 1).
The Panoche Drainage District, acting as the lead agency under the California Environmental Quality Act,
prepared a negative declaration for the SJRIP in September 2000. The negative declaration included a provision
for the development, in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), of a biological
monitoring program that would detect potential project-related impacts on migratory birds resulting from
exposure to elevated levels of selenium.
In addition, the Final Biological Opinion for the Grasslands Bypass Project, October 1, 2001–December 31, 2009 (biological
opinion) (USFWS 2001) stipulates that a monitoring program and contingency plan be designed, in consultation
with USFWS, to address potential San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) exposure to selenium at the SJRIP
site. Consequently, a Tiered Contaminant Monitoring Program to measure selenium levels in constituents of
the San Joaquin kit fox food chain was implemented in 2008. The biological opinion was updated in 2009 to
cover the period from 2010 through 2019.