[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 237 (Monday, December 9, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 64861]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-31212]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Bonneville Power Administration


Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement

AGENCY: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Department of Energy 
(DOE).

ACTION: Notice of Availability of Record of Decision (ROD).

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SUMMARY: The United States Entity (the Administrator of the Bonneville 
Power Administration [BPA] and the Division Engineer, North Pacific 
Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers [Corps]) has decided to 
fulfill its obligation under the Columbia River Treaty (Treaty) between 
the United States of America (United States) and Canada by delivering 
Canada's Entitlement under the Treaty to points on the border between 
Canada and the United States near Blaine, Washington and Nelway, 
British Columbia (BC). Delivering the full Entitlement at existing 
interconnections at those locations will require no new transmission 
facilities in the United States or in Canada. However, construction of 
cross-Cascades transmission in the United States would be accelerated, 
to as early as 2005. Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement will begin 
April 1, 1998.
    The Treaty, signed in 1961, led to the construction of three 
storage dams on the Columbia River system in Canada and one in the 
United States. Under the Treaty, Canada and the United States equally 
share the benefits of the additional power that can be generated at 
dams downstream in the United States because of the storage at the 
upstream Treaty reservoirs. Canada's half of the downstream power 
benefits, the Canadian Entitlement (Entitlement), is calculated to be 
approximately 1,200 to 1,500 megawatts (MW) of capacity and 550 to 600 
average megawatts (aMW) of energy. Canada sold its share of the power 
benefits for 30-year periods to a consortium of United States 
utilities. The 30-year sale will begin to expire in 1998, when the 
first installment of the Entitlement must be delivered to Canada. The 
Treaty specifies that the Entitlement must be delivered to Canada at a 
point on the border near Oliver, BC, unless the parties agree to other 
arrangements. An interim agreement, signed in 1992, allowed the 
Entitlement to be delivered over existing facilities between 1998 and 
2003.
    In the Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement Final Environmental 
Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0197, issued in January 1996), the United 
States Entity evaluated the potential environmental impacts of a range 
of alternatives for delivering the Entitlement to Canada, including 
various combinations of delivery points, power purchases, and resource 
development. Over a period of several years, the United States and 
Canadian Entities made a concerted effort to find a mutually agreeable 
alternative to delivery at Oliver on commercially reasonable terms. To 
comply with the Treaty, the United States Entity needed to be able to 
deliver the full Entitlement to Canada by March 31, 2003, when the 
interim agreement expired. In a Record of Decision (ROD) issued March 
12, 1996, the United States Entity documented its decision to deliver 
the full Entitlement to Oliver. That decision reflected the inability 
of the United States and Canadian Entities to agree to an alternative 
arrangement to the Treaty-specified delivery point.
    Delivery at Oliver would have required the construction and 
operation of a new single circuit, 500-kilovolt line from Grand Coulee 
or Chief Joseph Substation to the border. The United States Entity 
issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare the Oliver Delivery Project 
EIS on March 25, 1996, and began scoping activities to support that 
EIS.
    Subsequent discussions have led to a mutually agreed upon 
alternative for Entitlement delivery. The United States and Canadian 
Entities are prepared to execute an Entity Agreement that would replace 
delivery of the Entitlement to Oliver with delivery of the Entitlement 
at existing transmission interconnections between the United States and 
Canada in the vicinity of Blaine, Washington and Nelway, BC.
    The proposed Entity Agreement will supersede and terminate the 
interim agreement. The proposed Agreement does not address delivery of 
the Entitlement in the United States. If the United States and Canadian 
Entities propose delivery in the United States, the United States 
Entity will review the Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement EIS to 
ensure that the impacts are adequately analyzed. A decision to dispose 
of the Entitlement in the United States would be the subject of an 
additional United States Entity ROD.
    This new ROD replaces the March 12, 1996 ROD and withdraws the NOI 
for the Oliver Delivery Project EIS.

ADDRESS: Copies of the ROD and Environmental Impact Statement may be 
obtained by calling BPA's toll-free document request line: 1-800-622-
4520.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Katherine Semple Pierce--EC, 
Bonneville Power Administration, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon, 
97208-3621, phone number (503) 230-3962, fax number (503) 230-5699.

    Issued by the United States Entity in Portland, Oregon, on 
November 8, 1996.
Randall W. Hardy,
Chair.
Bartholomew B. Bohn, III,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
[FR Doc. 96-31212 Filed 12-6-96; 8:45 am]
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