UC Davis' expanded environmental review of the Veterinary Medicine 3B pro-ject confirms the planners' initial finding:

The university has policies in place to mitigate or minimize, as much as possible, the environmental impacts of the 125,000-square-foot building. It would comprise about 76,000 square feet of assignable space for research laboratories, offices and other work space.

The construction timetable now in place shows work starting in the fall of 2008 and taking two years. The budget is about $90 million in campus, state and gift funds.

The Office of Resource Management and Planning issued a report in March stating that the project qualified for a negative declaration — that is, a statement that the project's environmental impacts would be insignificant, or, in the alternative, could be mitigated or could not be avoided.

Air, water, culture

Nevertheless, the planners elected to prepare a focused environmental impact report. That document, released May 7, declares that "there are no feasible project-specific mitigation measures beyond those (previously) identified … that would further reduce the significant or unavoidable impacts."

Those impacts fall in three areas: air quality, hydrology and cultural resources.

The university's mitigation measures are spelled out in a master environmental impact report, or EIR, adopted in 2003 along with the Long-Range Development Plan.

In regard to cultural resources, the university's initial analysis of the Veterinary Medicine 3B project found that "no historic resources exist on or near" the construction site, and that no archaeological resources were found during an on-site survey.

Nevertheless, as required by the master EIR, the university intends to be on the lookout for archaeological resources that may be found during construction, and would take steps to preserve those resources.

The project's air quality impacts are mostly associated with construction activity. The university's policies in this regard include a number of dust control measures, as well as a five-minute limit on engine idling when equipment is not in use.

Planners note that Vet Med 3B, when completed, will not add to the campus population, therefore the building should not result in added vehicular traffic and associated air pollution. Still, the university's master EIR calls for continued efforts to reduce reliance on private vehicles for travel to and from campus.

Vet Med 3B's hydrological impacts relate to the increased extraction of underground water, as well as the addition of concrete and pavement that keep water from seeping back into the ground.

The master EIR calls for the campus to continue to implement water conservation strategies to reduce demand for water from the deep aquifer, which is the source for the campus's domestic water supply.

Information, comments

The draft environmental impact report is available for review on campus at the Office of Resource Management and Planning, 376 Mrak Hall, and in the reserves at Shields Library and the Carlson Health Sciences Library, and off campus at the Yolo County Library, 315 E. 14th St., Davis, and the Vacaville Library, 1020 Ulatis Drive. The report also is available online, www.ormp.ucdavis.edu/environreview (click on "Current Projects" and then look under "V" for Veterinary Medicine 3B).

Comments are due by 5 p.m. June 21. They should be directed to John Meyer, vice chancellor of Resource Management and Planning, UC Davis, One Shields Ave., 376 Mrak Hall, Davis 95616, or e-mailed to environreview@ucdavis.edu.