[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 195 (Monday, October 7, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52443-52444]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-25570]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Project No. 11566-001-ME]
Consolidated Hydro Maine, Inc.; Notice of Site Visit and Scoping
Meeting Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
October 1, 1996.
On August 19, 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
(Commission) issued a letter accepting the Consolidated Hydro Maine,
Inc.'s application for initial license for the Damariscotta Mills Hydro
Project, located on the Damariscotta River in Lincoln County, Maine.
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 Damariscotta Mills Hydro Project on October 23, 1996, at 1 p.m.
They will meet at the project powerhouse, located on Rt. 215 in
Newcastle. 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 Kevin Webb, the applicant contact, at
(508) 681-1900 (ext. 1225), 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 22, 1996, from
6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Central High School, 194 Center St.,
Nobleboro, Maine 04555.
The agency scoping meeting will be held on October 23, 1996, from
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., at the Maine Dept. of Environmental
Protection, Rm. LW-4, Ray Building-AMHI Complex, Hospital Street (Rt.
9), Augusta, ME 04333. For more details, interested parties should
contact Dana Murch, Maine DEP, at (207) 287-3901, 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
Damariscotta Mills 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
Damariscotta Mills Project, the Commission staff will not hold
[[Page 52444]]
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 record of the Commission proceeding on the Damariscotta
Mills 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 November 1, 1996.
All filings should contain an original and 8 copies. Failure to
file on 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: Damariscotta Mills Hydro Project, FERC No.
11566.
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).
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.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-25570 Filed 10-4-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M