Subject: Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact
[Federal Register: October 11, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 197)]
[Notices]
[Page 51946-51947]
>From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr11oc01-77]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and
Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visit and Soliciting Scoping
Comments
October 4, 2001.
Take notice that the following hydroelectric applications have been
filed with Commission and are available for public inspection:
a. Type of Application: New Major License.
b. Project No.: 2030-036.
c. Date filed: June 29, 2001.
d. Applicants: Portland General Electric Company (PGE) and the
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWS).
e. Name of Project: Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project.
f. Location: The project is located on the Deschutes River in
Jefferson, Marion, and Wasco Counties, Oregon. The project occupies
lands of the Deschutes National Forest; Mt Hood National Forest;
Willamette National Forest; Crooked River National Grassland; Bureau of
Land Management; and tribal lands of the Warm Springs Reservation of
Oregon.
g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
h. Applicant Contacts: Julie Keil, Director, Hydro Licensing,
Portland General Electric Company, 121 SW Salmon Street, Portland, OR
97204, (503) 464-8864; and James Manion, General Manager, Warm Springs
Power Enterprises, P.O. Box 690, Warm Springs, OR 97761, (541) 553-
1046.
i. FERC Contact: Any questions on this notice should be addressed
to Nan Allen at (202) 219-2839. E-mail address: nan.allen@ferc.fed.us.
j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: December 7, 2001.
All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with:
David P. Boergers, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426. Scoping Comments, protests and
interventions may be filed electronically via the Internet in lieu of
paper. See, 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the
Commission's web site under the ``e-Filing'' link.
The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all
interveners filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of
that document on each person on the official service list for the
project. Further, if an intervener files comments or documents with the
Commission relating to the merits of an issue that may affect the
responsibilities of a particular resource agency, they must also serve
a copy of the document on that resource agency.
k. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this
time.
l. The Round Butte development works consisting of: (1) The 440-
foot-high, 1,382-foot-long Round Butte dam; (2) a 535,000-acre-foot
reservoir with a normal pool elevation at 1,945.0 feet mean sea level
(msl); (3) a spillway intake structure topped with a 30-foot-high, 36-
foot-wide radial gate, and a 1,800-foot-long, 21-foot-diameter spillway
tunnel; (4) an 85-foot-long, varying in height and width, powerhouse
intake structure; (5) a 1,425-foot-long, 23-foot-diameter power tunnel;
(6) a powerhouse containing three turbine generating units with a total
installed capacity of 247 megawatts (MW); (7) a 12.5-kilovolt (kV),
10.5-mile-long transmission line extending to the Reregulating dam, and
a 230-kV, 100-mile-long transmission line extending to Portland
General's Bethel substation; and (8) appurtenant facilities.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ On July 25, 2001, an amendment to the current license was
approved that would add one 70-kilowatt (kW) turbine generating unit
with associated support structure at the Round Butte powerhouse.
This turbine has not yet been installed.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Pelton development consists of: (1) The 204-foot-high, 636-
foot-long thin-arch variable-radius reinforced concrete Pelton dam with
a crest elevation 1,585 feet msl; (2) a reinforced concrete spillway on
the left bank with a crest elevation of 1,558 feet msl; (3) Lake
Simtustus with a gross storage capacity of 31,000 acre-feet and a
normal maximum surface area of 540 acres at normal maximum water
surface elevation of 1,580 feet msl; (4) an intake structure at the
dam; (5) three 16-foot-diameter penstocks, 107 feet long, 116 feet
long, and 108 feet long, respectively; (6) a powerhouse with three
turbine/generator units with a total installed capacity of 108 MW; (7)
a tailrace channel; (8) a 7.9-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line from
the powerhouse to the Round Butte switchyard; and (9) other
appurtenances.
The Reregulating development consists of: (1) The 88-foot-high,
1,067-foot-long concrete gravity and impervious core rockfilled
Reregulating dam with a spillway crest elevation of 1,402 feet msl; (2)
a reservoir with a gross storage capacity of 3,500 acre feet and a
normal maximum water surface area of 190 acres at normal maximum water
surface elevation of 1,435 feet
[[Page 51947]]
msl; (3) a powerhouse at the dam containing a 18.9-MW turbine/generator
unit; (4) a tailrace channel; (5) a 3.2-mile-long, 69-kV transmission
line from the development to the Warm Springs substation; and (6) other
appurtenances.
The project is estimated to generate an average of 1.613 billion
kilowatthours annually. The dams and existing project facilities are
owned by the co-applicants.
m. A copy of the application is on file with the Commission and is
available for public inspection. This filing may also be viewed on the
Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``RIMS'' link--select ``Docket#''
and follow the instructions (call 202-208-2222 for assistance). A copy
is also available for inspection and reproduction at the address in
item h above.
n. Scoping Process.
The Commission intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) on the project in accordance with the National Environmental
Policy Act. The EIS will consider both site-specific and cumulative
environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed
action.
Scoping Meetings
FERC staff will conduct one agency scoping meeting and one public
meeting. The agency scoping meeting will focus on resource agency and
non-governmental organization (NGO) concerns, while the public scoping
meeting is primarily for public input. All interested individuals,
organizations, and agencies are invited to attend one or both of the
meetings, and to assist the staff in identifying the scope of the
environmental issues that should be analyzed in the EIS. The times and
locations of these meetings are as follows:
Daytime Meeting
Wednesday, November 7, 2001, 9:00 a.m., Maccie Conroy Center, Jefferson
County Fair Complex, 430 SW Fairgrounds Road, Madras, Oregon
Evening Meeting
Wednesday, November 7, 2001, 7 p.m., Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, Highway 8, Warm
Springs, Oregon
Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to
be addressed in the EIS were distributed to the parties on the
Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 will be available at the
scoping meeting or may be viewed on the Web at http://www.ferc.gov
using the ``RIMS'' link, select ``Docket#'' and follow the instructions
(call 202-208-2222 for assistance).
Site Visit
The applicants and Commission staff will conduct a project site
visit beginning at 8:30 a.m. on November 6, 2001. All interested
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to attend. All
participants should meet at the Round Butte Overlook Park. All
participants are responsible for their own transportation to the site.
Anyone with questions about the site visit should contact Marty May,
PGE, at phone 503-464-7578 or FAX 503-464-2944 by Wednesday, October
31.
Objectives
At the scoping meetings, the Commission staff will: (1) Summarize
the environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the
EIS; (2) solicit from the meeting participants all available
information, especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue;
(3) encourage statements from experts and the public on issues that
should be analyzed in the EIS, including viewpoints in opposition to,
or in support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the
resource issues to be addressed in the EIS; and (5) identify those
issues that require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that
do not require a detailed analysis.
Procedures
The meetings are recorded by a stenographer and become part of the
formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.
Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend one or both of the
meetings and to assist the staff in defining and clarifying the issues
to be addressed in the EIS.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 01-25494 Filed 10-10-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P