[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 185 (Friday, September 24, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51752-51753]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24866]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visits and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

September 20, 1999.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: Original Minor License.
    b. Project No.: 11616-000.
    c. Date Filed: June 1, 1998.
    d. Applicant: City of Portland, Michigan.
    e. Name of Project: Portland Municipal Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: On the Grand River, near the City of Portland, in 
Ionia County, Michigan. The project would not utilize federal lands.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 USC 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Glen Hendrix, Earth Tech, Inc., 555 Glenwood 
Hills Pkwy., Grand Rapids, MI 49588, (616) 940-4406.
    i. FERC Contact: Tom Dean, [email protected], (202) 219-2778.
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: November 22, 1999.
    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.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
intervenors filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person whose name appears on the official service 
list for the project. Further, if an intervenor 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. Status of environmental analysis: This application is not ready 
for environmental analysis at this time.
    1. Description of the Project: The project consists of the 
following existing facilities: (1) a 13-foot-high, 325-foot-long dam 
with a concrete spillway; (2) a reservoir with a surface area of 90 
acres, and a storage area of 140 acre-feet; (3) a powerhouse with a 
forebay containing two generating units with a total installed capacity 
of 375 kW; and (4) other appurtenances.
    m. Locations of the application: A copy of the application is 
available for inspection and reproduction at the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, located at 888 First Street, NE, Room 2A, Washington, 
DC 20246, or by calling (202) 208-1371. The application may be viewed 
on the web at http://www.ferc.fed.us/online/rims.htm (call (202) 208-
2222 for assistance). A copy is also available for inspection and 
reproduction at the address in item h above.
    The Commission intends to prepare a Multiple Project Environmental 
Assessment (MPEA) for the licensing of the Portland Municipal Project 
and the relicensing of the Webber Project No. 2566, in accordance with 
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The MPEA will consider 
both site-specific and cumulative environmental effects, if any, of the 
proposed action and reasonable alternatives, and will include an 
economic, financial, and engineering analysis.

Scoping Meetings

    The Commission will hold two scoping meetings, one in the daytime 
and one in the evening, to help us identify the scope of issues to be 
addressed in the MPEA. The daytime scoping meeting will focus on 
resource agency concerns, while the evening scoping meeting is 
primarily for public input. All interested individuals, organizations, 
and agencies are invited

[[Page 51753]]

to attend one or both of the meetings, and to assist the staff in 
identifying the environmental issues that should be addressed in the 
MPEA.
    The evening meeting will be on Wednesday, October 20, 1999, 
beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Portland High School auditorium, located 
at 1100 Ionia Road, Portland, Michigan. The morning meeting will be 
held on Thursday, October 21, 1999, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the 
Lansing Center, Room 202, located at 333 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing, 
Michigan.
    To help focus discussions, we will distribute a Scoping Document 
(SDI) outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the MPEA to 
parties on the Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SDI also will 
be available at the scoping meetings.

Site Visit

    The applicant and the Commission staff will conduct project site 
visits on Wednesday, October 20, 1999, starting at 10:00 a.m. We will 
meet at the parking lot next to the Portland Dam powerhouse and fish 
ladder off Lyons Road. If you plan to attend the site visit, please 
call Glen Hendix, Earth Tech, Inc. at (616) 940-4406, no later than 
October 13, 1999.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the MPEA; 
(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 MPEA, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the MPEA; and (5) identify those issues that 
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not 
require a detailed analysis.
    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become 
part of the formal record of the Commission's proceeding on the 
project. Individuals presenting statements at the meetings will be 
asked to sign in before the meeting starts and to clearly identify 
themselves for the record.
    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 
in the MPEA.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-24866 Filed 9-23-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M