The commission shall review and approve, or disapprove, the plan on the basis of whether the plan provides all of the following:

(a) Permanent protection and enhancement of marshes, tidelands, tidally influenced wetlands, and upland habitat sufficient to assure the long-term usefulness of White Slough as a wildlife habitat, a flood basin consistent with wetland enhancement goals, and a wetland resource for the city and the region, including the establishment, operation, and maintenance of adequate tidal action and water quality to preclude algal blooms, to provide a fishery, and to provide waterfowl feeding, resting, and breeding areas.

(b) Location and siting for a project that consists of a State Highway Route 37 widened to not more than four lanes, with the minimum medians and shoulders necessary to assure highway safety, interchanges between State Highway Route 37 and State Highway Route 29 and Sacramento Street, the covering of the flooded sewerline south of State Highway Route 37 and the relocation of the flooded line north of State Highway Route 37 within the area required for the widening of State Highway Route 37, and that provides for all of the following:

(1) A tidal control structure or structures or open channels, sufficient to assure adequate waterflow for suitable water quality, wetland enhancement of South White Slough, and flood protection, between the wetlands north and south of the State Highway Route 37 corridor.

(2) Adequate height and design to protect developed areas of the city from flooding.

(3) No access from the widened State Highway Route 37 to tidal wetlands north of the highway.

(4) The minimum wetland fill necessary, but in no event more than 13 acres.

(5) Mitigation measures, specifically including the following:

(A) Prior to the placing of fill or commencement of other highway construction work, acquisition of upland areas in the vicinity of White Slough which do not presently provide unique or especially significant wildlife habitat and which are four times the size of the area to be filled.

(B) The conversion of these lands to wetlands during highway construction.

(C) The hiring of an independent biologist to assess current conditions on the wetlands to be filled and to monitor the conditions of the newly created wetlands over time.

(D) The permanent protection of the created wetlands.

(E)  Assurances that the created wetlands will be functioning in a manner which fully replaces the filled wetlands within five years. If, after three years it does not appear that the created wetlands will be fully functioning within the five-year period, then the wetlands shall be further improved in a manner which ensures full replacement of the filled wetlands or which provides additional new wetlands. After the five years, the department shall no longer be required to maintain the created wetlands, but may transfer the created wetlands either to the Department of Fish and Game or to another appropriate resource agency for the wetlands’ permanent management for wildlife habitat purposes.

(c) Levees within and adjacent to South White Slough necessary for flood control, wetland habitat enhancement, and public access purposes. The department shall not be responsible for the construction and maintenance of the levees within and adjacent to South White Slough, except for the White Slough Project. Fill for flood control and public access purposes shall be the minimum necessary and shall be mitigated by the acquisition, excavation, and conversion to wetlands of uplands in the vicinity of the project and which do not presently provide unique or especially significant wildlife habitat, to provide an area of wetland habitat at least twice the area to be filled.

(d) Acquisition of interests in real property sufficient to preserve and maintain permanently the wetland, tidal, water-covered, and public access areas of White Slough.

(e) Recognition that the project constructed in accordance with the plan is required to meet the requirements of the federal Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbors Act, if applicable.

(Added by Stats. 1990, Ch. 247, Sec. 2.)