[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 183 (Thursday, September 19, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 49319-49320]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-23995]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Project No. 3663-004-MN]


Minnesota Power and Light Company; Notice of Site Visit and 
Scoping Meeting Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969

September 13, 1996.
    On October 2, 1995, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
(Commission) issued a letter accepting the Minnesota Power and Light 
Company's application for new license for the Pillager Hydro Project, 
located on the Crow Wing River in Cass and Morrison Counties, near 
Pillager, Minnesota.
    The purpose of this notice is to: (1) Advise all parties as to the 
proposed scope of the staff's environmental analysis, including 
cumulative effects, and to seek additional information pertinent to 
this analysis; and (2) advise all parties of their opportunity for 
comment.

Scoping Process

    The Commission's scoping objectives are to:
     Identify significant environmental issues;
     Determine the depth of analysis appropriate to each issue;
     Identify the resource issues not requiring detailed 
analysis; and
     Identify reasonable project alternatives.
    The purpose of the scoping process is to identify significant 
issues related to the proposed action and to determine what issues 
should be addressed in the environmental document to be prepared 
pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The 
document entitled ``Scoping Document I'' (SDI) will be circulated 
shortly to enable appropriate federal, state, and local resource 
agencies, developers, Indian tribes, nongovernmental organizations 
(NGO's), and other interested parties to effectively participate in and 
contribute to the scoping process. SDI provides a brief description of 
the proposed action, project alternatives, the geographic and temporal 
scope of a cumulative effects analysis, and a list of preliminary 
issues identified by staff.

Project Site Visit

    The applicant and the Commission staff will conduct a site visit of 
the Pillager Hydro Project on October 3, 1996, at 10:00 a.m. They will 
meet at the project powerhouse, located one mile southwest of the City 
of Pillager, on Pillager Dam Road. All interested individuals, NGO's 
and agencies are invited to attend. All participants are responsible 
for their own transportation and should bring a hard hat. For more 
details, interested parties should contact Christopher D. Anderson, the 
applicant contact, at (218) 723-3961, prior to the site visit date.

Scoping Meetings

    The Commission staff will conduct two scoping meetings. All 
interested individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to 
attend and assist the staff in identifying the scope of environmental 
issues that should be analyzed in the NEPA document.
    The public scoping meeting will be held on October 3, 1996, from 
5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Pillager High School, corner of East 
Second Street and Daisy Avenue, Pillager, Minnesota 56473.
    The agency scoping meeting will be held on October 2, 1996, from 
9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., at the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife 
Refuge, 3815 East 80th Street, Bloomington, Minnesota 55425. For more 
details, interested parties should contact Lynn Lewis, US Fish and 
Wildlife Service, at (612) 725-3548, prior to the meeting date.
    The Commission will decide, based on the application, and agency 
and public comments at the scoping session, whether licensing the 
Pillager Project constitutes a major federal action significantly 
affecting the quality of the human environment. Irrespective of the 
Commission's determination to prepare an environmental assessment or an 
environmental impact statement for the Pillager Project, the Commission 
staff will not hold additional scoping meetings other than those 
scheduled, as listed above.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the Commission staff will: (1) Summarize 
the environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the 
NEPA document; (2) solicit from the meeting participants all available 
information, especially quantified data, on the resources at issue, and 
(3) encourage statements from experts and the public on issues that 
should be analyzed in the NEPA document. Individuals, organizations, 
and agencies with environmental expertise and concerns are encouraged 
to attend the meetings and to assist the staff in defining and 
clarifying the issues to be addressed.

Meeting Procedures

    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and become a part 
of the formal records of the Commission proceeding on the Pillager 
Project. Individuals presenting statements at the meetings will be 
asked to identify themselves for the record.
    Concerned parties are encouraged to offer us verbal guidance during 
public meetings. Speaking time allowed for individuals will be 
determined before each meeting, based on the number of persons wishing 
to speak and the approximate amount of time available for the session, 
but all speakers will be provided at least 5 minutes to present their 
views.
    All those attending the meeting are urged to refrain from making 
any communications concerning the merits of the application to any 
member of the Commission staff outside of the established process for 
developing the record as stated in the record of the proceeding.
    Persons choosing not to speak but wishing to express an opinion, as 
well as speakers unable to summarize their positions within their 
allotted time, may submit written statements for inclusion in the 
public record no later than October 11, 1996.
    All filings should contain an original and 8 copies. Failure to 
file an original and 8 copies may result in appropriate staff not 
receiving the benefit of your comments in a timely manner. See 18 CFR 
4.34(h). In addition, commenters may submit a copy of their comments on 
a 3\1/2\-inch diskette formatted for MS-DOS based computers. In light 
of our ability to translate MS-DOS based materials, the text need only 
be submitted in the format and version that it was generated (i.e., MS 
Word, WordPerfect 5.1/5.2, ASCII, etc.). It is not necessary to 
reformat word processor generated text to ASCII. For Macintosh users, 
it would be helpful to save the documents in Macintosh word processor 
format and then write them to files on a diskette formatted for MS-DOS 
machines. All comments should be submitted to the Office of the 
Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, 
N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426, and should clearly show the following 
captions on the first page: Pillager Hydro Project, FERC No. 2663.
    Further, interested persons are reminded of the Commission's Rules 
of Practice and Procedures, requiring parties or interceders (as 
defined in 18 CFR 385.2010) to file documents on each person whose name 
is on the official service list for this proceeding. See 18 CFR 
4.34(b).

[[Page 49320]]

    The Commission staff will consider all written comments and may 
issue a Scoping Document II (SDII). SDII will include a revised list of 
issues, based on the scoping sessions.
    For further information regarding the scoping process, please 
contact Rich Takacs, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Office of 
Hydropower Licensing, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20426 at 
(202) 219-2840, or Ed Lee at (202) 219-2809.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-23995 Filed 9-18-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M