[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