[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 202 (Wednesday, October 20, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56488-56489]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-27423]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Bonneville Power Administration
Fish and Wildlife Implementation Plan
AGENCY: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Department of Energy
(DOE).
ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement
(EIS).
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SUMMARY: Throughout the Pacific Northwest region there are several
ongoing processes to develop plans and programs for the management,
recovery, and mitigation of the Columbia River Basin's fish and
wildlife resources. These plans and programs will help to shape a
regional fish and wildlife policy direction that will guide BPA's
mitigation and recovery efforts, including its funding, for the next
decade or more. BPA expects to shift its fish and wildlife spending
accordingly. BPA currently funds over 70 percent of the fish and
wildlife mitigation and recovery efforts on behalf of the Federal
Columbia River Power System (FCRPS). Consequently, BPA has a
responsibility to understand the impacts of those efforts and to ensure
it can fund them efficiently. Therefore, BPA intends to prepare an EIS
that examines the impacts that may arise from implementing one of the
fish and wildlife policy directions reflected in the alternatives being
considered in the ongoing regional processes. BPA will coordinate the
scoping meetings and comment processes for this EIS with the other
ongoing regional processes. However, BPA is preparing this EIS for its
own purposes, and the EIS is not a predicate for decisions by other
Federal agencies.
DATES: BPA will establish a 30-day scoping period during which all
interested and affected persons and agencies are invited to comment on
the scope of BPA's proposed Fish and Wildlife Implementation Plan EIS.
Scoping will help BPA ensure that a full range of issues related to the
implementation of its fish and wildlife duties are addressed in the
EIS, and also will identify significant or potentially significant
impacts that may result from implementation of such a new plan. A
Notice of Scoping Meeting(s) will be published in the Federal Register.
That notice will announce the date(s) and location(s) of the scoping
meeting(s) and provide specific information on the close of the scoping
period.
When completed, the Draft EIS will be circulated for review and
comment, and BPA will hold public comment meetings for the Draft EIS.
BPA will consider and respond to comments received on the Draft EIS in
the Final EIS.
ADDRESSES: BPA invites comments and suggestions on the proposed scope
of the Draft EIS. Send comment letters, and requests to be placed on
the project mailing list, to Communications, Bonneville Power
Administration--KC-7, PO Box 12999, Portland, Oregon, 97212. The phone
number of the Communications office is 503-230-3478 in Portland; toll-
free 1-800-622-4519
[[Page 56489]]
outside of Portland. Comments may also be sent to the BPA Internet
address: [email protected].
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Charles C. Alton, Project Manager,
KEC-4, Bonneville Power Administration, PO Box 3621, Portland, Oregon,
97208-3621; phone number 503-230-5878; fax number 503-230-5699.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BPA markets electric power from 29
hydroelectric dams operated by the United States Army, Corps of
Engineers (Corps); and the United States Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Reclamation (BoR), in the Pacific Northwest (Idaho, Montana,
Oregon, and Washington). Part of the power-marketing responsibility
includes complying with the laws meant to protect the environment. In
the last two decades, BPA has spent over $2 billion collected from its
ratepayers on measures to mitigate and recover fish and wildlife. BPA
currently spends approximately $252 million annually, plus there are
lost power opportunities and operational costs.
Under the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and
Conservation Act (Northwest Power Act), BPA has duties: (1) To protect,
mitigate, and enhance fish and wildlife adversely affected by the
construction and operation of the FCRPS, and (2) to do so in a manner
that provides equitable treatment for such fish and wildlife with the
other purposes of the FCRPS. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA),
BPA has duties to avoid jeopardy to species listed under ESA and to aid
in the recovery of those species. BPA's mitigation and recovery
expenditures are typically in fulfillment of these Northwest Power Act
and ESA duties.
BPA expects that the entities that help guide its expenditures for
mitigation and recovery will recommend changes in BPA's spending regime
and programs. These recommendations could include eliminating some
current mitigation projects, significantly modifying others, and
initiating whole new projects. These changes in priorities may require
reexamination of the impacts BPA enables through its fish and wildlife
funding. Therefore, BPA is initiating an EIS to study the environmental
impacts that may arise from BPA's implementation of the alternatives
being considered in the other regional processes currently underway.
The EIS will provide a broad-based comparison of the impacts associated
with these alternatives.
The first regional process to develop alternatives that may affect
the implementation of BPA's fish and wildlife duties is the Multi-
Species Framework Project (Framework) which is managed collaboratively
by the Northwest Power Planning Council (States), Federal agencies, and
Tribes. The Framework is developing a set of alternatives for future
economic and natural resource management of the basin. The EIS will
consider the biological, social, and economic effects of those
alternatives.
The other major Federal decision-making processes that may affect
BPA's fish and wildlife duties are those associated with planning for
future operations of the FCRPS, National Forest Planning activities,
and plans for operation of fish hatcheries and regulation of fish
harvests. Nine Federal agencies are involved in various aspects of
these management activities affecting the Columbia River--the National
Marine Fisheries Service, the Corps, the BoR, BPA, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management. BPA is
also participating in ESA consultations that will lead to a decision in
the year 2000 regarding how to structure and operate the FCRPS. That
decision will not be considered in the EIS here being proposed. The
National Environmental Policy Act documentation for that decision has
already been or is currently being prepared in a separate process.
In addition to the Framework and Federal Caucus processes, there
are numerous other actions related to the development and
implementation of BPA's fish and wildlife implementation plan. These
actions include studies to address water quality issues in the Columbia
and Snake Rivers, various salmon restoration plans, and a review of
artificial (hatchery) production. Still other processes may be
identified during scoping. This EIS will use information from these
efforts in its analysis.
Need for the EIS
BPA intends to reexamine the assumptions underlying its current
fish and wildlife implementation plan. The purpose of the EIS is to
compare the status quo implementation plan with alternatives derived
from the other regional processes in an attempt to find a better way to
achieve greater administrative efficiency, biological effectiveness,
and cost-effectiveness while providing health and stability for the
environment and economy.
Issued in Portland, Oregon, on October 8, 1999.
J. A. Johansen,
Administrator and Chief Executive Officer.
[FR Doc. 99-27423 Filed 10-19-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P