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<br />9 <br /> <br />Fluctuating Flow Alternative and 64 and 73 percent for the preferred Modified <br />Low Fluctuating Flow Alternative (draft EIS, pages 54-55, 184, 187, and 194). <br />Results from these two alternatives differ by 3 percentage points. <br /> <br />For the final EIS, the Peak Shaving Model was used to simulate hourly releases <br />for the revised preferred alternative for the same 20-years and used in the <br />power economic impact analysis. 8y interpolating between impact analysis <br />results from the interim Low and Moderate Fluctuating Flow Alternatives, the <br />increase in number of hours when the flow is between 20,000 and 25,000 cfs was <br />expected to be small. Since only a small increase was predicted, little <br />difference in sand transport capacity was expected to result. Consequently, <br />no additional analysis of the long-term sand transport capacity or sand <br />storage was conducted. <br /> <br />Expanded Analysis: Recently, an additional analysis of the sand transport <br />capacity was conducted due to concerns expressed by the environmental <br />community. Using the previous .Peak Shaving Model results, the percentages of <br />days and hours that flows exceed specific discharges were quantified and are <br />shown in Table 4 for selected alternatives. These results are from a variety <br />of years with annual volumes ranging from 8 million to 18 million acre-feet. <br />As shown in the table, the changes in the preferred alternative result in a <br />3.5 percentage-point increase over the Interim Low Fluctuating Flow <br />Alternative in the number of hours when the flow is greater than 20,000 cfs. <br />Peak Shaving Model results indicate that during minimum release years (less <br />than or equal to 8.3 million acre-feet), flows would be greater than 20,000 <br />cfs during 2.6 percent of the hours and greater than 22,000 cfs during 1.1 <br />percent of the hours. <br /> <br />Again using the results from the peak shaving model, sand transport capacity <br />was computed for each hour of the 20 year simulation for the final preferred <br />alternative. The computed sand transport capacity for the 20-year period was <br />compared among the No Action, Moderate Fluctuating Flow, interim Low <br />Fluctuating Flow, and the modified Low Fluctuating Flow Alternatives (see <br />figure 2). As shown, there is a substantial reduction in sand transport <br />capacity between the no action alternative and the action alternatives. <br />However, the differences in sand transport capacity for the interim Low <br />Fluctuating Flow, modified Low Fluctuating Flow, and Moderate Fluctuating Flow <br />are quite small. As anticipated, there is no significant difference in sand <br />transport capability, and thus sand storage between the interim Low and <br />modified Low Fluctuating Flow alternatives. <br />