City Council Agenda Report
Meeting Date: June 20, 2023
From: Todd Dusenberry, General Manager of Public Utilities Department: Public Utilities
Submitted by: Adriana Ramos, Administrative Analyst
Subject
Vernon Public Utilities 2023 Wildfire Mitigation Plan
Recommendation
A. Find that the proposed action is exempt from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), in accordance with CEQA Guidelines Section 15061(B)(3), the general rule that CEQA only applies to projects that may have a significant effect on the environment. This action receives and files an update to the City’s plan for the implementation of preventative strategies and mitigation measures to minimize the risk of wildfires caused by electrical lines and equipment; this action does not authorize any construction activity or any disturbance of an environmental resource, and has no potential for causing a significant effect on the environment; and B. Approve the Vernon Public Utilities 2023 Wildfire Mitigation Plan.
Background
In 2018, the California legislature adopted Senate Bill 901 (SB 901), requiring every publicly owned electric utility (POU) to prepare and present a Wildfire Mitigation Plan (WMP) to its governing body by January 1, 2020, and update it annually. Assembly Bill 1054 (Holden, Chapter 79, Statutes of 2019) and Assembly Bill 111 (Committee on Budget, Chapter 81, Statutes of 2019) made additional significant reforms relating to wildfires, establishing a new state agency called the California Wildfire Safety Advisory Board (Board) and requiring all POUs to submit their WMPs to the Board each year, starting in 2020. The Board will then review the POU plans and provide comments and advisory opinions on the content and sufficiency of the plans. At least once every three years, the submission shall be a comprehensive revision of the plan.
On May 18, 2021, City Council adopted Resolution No. 2021-12, approving the Vernon Public Utilities 2021 Wildfire Mitigation Plan. Section 4 of the resolution allows the City Council to approve subsequent annual updates and triennial comprehensive revisions by minute order.
Approval of the triennial comprehensive WMP revision is necessary to meet state requirements.
The Board notes that many POUs have a relatively low likelihood of seeing or causing catastrophic wildfires in their service areas; due to characteristics such as the small size of their service area, and a service territory that is mostly if not wholly urban with no High Fire Threat District areas within or abutting. The Board expects to engage with such low probability POUs to be more appropriate in scope to the likelihood of wildfires in those areas.
In 2018, the Vernon Public Utilities (VPU) Department requested that the Vernon Fire Department perform an assessment of the electric service territories’ risk of wildfire caused by electric operations and equipment. The Vernon Fire Department's 2018 assessment reviewed Vernon's historical fire data, geographical location, and local conditions. The assessment also included information from the United States Forest Service's Fire Modeling Institute and the Office of the State Fire Marshal of CAL FIRE. Based on this information, the determination was made that VPU's electric equipment and operations do not pose a risk of igniting a fire that could cause any significant or catastrophic wildfire condition. This assessment of low risk was confirmed by an independent evaluator in May 2023 and is incorporated in the WMP in Appendix A.
Notwithstanding Vernon's low wildfire risk, VPU is required to develop a WMP in accordance with Public Utilities Code Section 8387, which requires WMPs to consider, as necessary, certain specified elements. VPU's WMP meets all the required criteria pursuant to Section 8387, including identification of elements that do not apply to Vernon due to the sparsity of wildfire fuel sources and distance from High Fire-Threat District Elevated risk areas, and an independent evaluator‘s determination that VPU's WMP addressed all required elements.
As part of the update, VPU reviewed the 2022 plan for changes to the electric system and key wildfire risks as well as incorporating where feasible recommendations provided by the Board.
There were no reportable incidences for the 2022 calendar year, as specified in the WMP.
Updates in the 2023 plan include the following:
• Renaming section headings to maintain consistency with the Board’s 2023 POU Guidance Advisory Opinion.
• Inclusion of a narrative response to the Board Guidance Advisory Opinion where applicable.
• Section 2.5: Clarification of the role of VPU’s generation in case of transmission interruption.
• Section 8.1: Update of tree inventory and clarification of tree management program. • Section 9: Clarification of distribution inspection metrics posted publicly on the VPU website.
• Section 13: Inclusion of a third metric, Outage Caused by Trees, which measures wildfire risk.
Additionally, there were minor formatting and non-substantive revisions. VPU’s WMP will next be due for a comprehensive revision in July 2026.
Fiscal Impact
There is no fiscal impact associated with this report.
Attachments
1. Wildfire Mitigation Plan 2023
2. Wildfire Mitigation Plan 2023 Redline