[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 9 (Friday, January 12, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Page 2926]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-1115]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Revised Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact 
Statement/Environmental Impact Report for the Torres Martinez-Calpine 
Power Generating Facility, Riverside County, California

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Revised notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice revises a notice published on June 13, 2000, in 
the Federal Register (65 FR 37163), which informed the public that the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs, in cooperation with the Torres Martinez 
Desert Cahuilla Indians and Calpine Corporation, intended to gather 
information necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) for a power generating facility that Calpine proposes to 
construct and operate on 41.5 acres of the Torres Martinez Indian 
Reservation in Riverside County, California. The purposes of this 
revised notice are to (1) announce that the Bureau will be preparing an 
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in conjunction with the EIS; (2) to 
include in the project description modifications made to the project 
after the original notice was published; and (3) to update the 
environmental issues identified for the project. Details on the changes 
are included in a revised SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. This 
notice also announces a public scoping meeting for the content of the 
EIS/EIR.

DATES: Comments on the scope and implementation of this proposal must 
arrive by February 12, 2001. The public scoping meeting will be held on 
January 30, 2001, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., or until all attendees 
who wish to do so have had the opportunity to register their views.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry written comments to Ronald M. 
Jaeger, Regional Director, Pacific Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, California, 95825-1846.
    The January 30, 2001, public scoping meeting will be held at the 
Tribal Hall, Torres Martinez Indian Reservation, 66-725 Martinez Road, 
Thermal, California.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Allan, (916) 978-6043, or 
Bobbi Fletcher, (760) 397-9850.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Calpine Corporation, through an agreement 
with the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, plans to construct, 
own and operate a 600 megawatt natural gas-fired power plant on a 41.5 
acre parcel of tribal trust land in Riverside County, California, 
northeast of the town of Mecca. The parcel is located along 62nd 
Avenue, east of Johnson Street near the Coachella Canal.
    Natural gas is proposed to be supplied to the plant by a new 11 to 
17 mile gas line extending north to a connection point north of the I-
10 Freeway. Electricity produced by the plant would be routed through 
an on-site substation to the first point of junction with the 
interconnected transmission system via existing electrical transmission 
lines. To relieve the potential for localized transmission system 
congestion beyond the point of first interconnection, the project would 
also require construction of a new electrical transmission line segment 
between the site and a substation in the city of Coachella, plus 
improvements to several miles of existing off-site transmission lines. 
Cooling water for the power plant is proposed to be obtained from the 
Coachella Canal immediately east of the site, or from an on-site 
groundwater well. The plant would utilize a zero-discharge system, 
wherein cooling water would be repeatedly cycled and then evaporated in 
on-site evaporation ponds.
    The areas of environmental concern to be addressed in the EIS/EIR 
include agricultural, water, biological, mineral, paleontological, 
visual/aesthetic and cultural resources, geology, soils, traffic and 
transportation, land use, noise, air quality, public health and 
infrastructure, environmental hazards, hazardous materials and waste, 
worker safety, socioeconomics/environmental justice, and Indian trust 
assets. Others may be added based on comments received during the 
scoping process.

Public Comment Solicitation

    As an alternative to submitting written comments regarding the 
content of the EIS/EIR to the location identified in the ADDRESSES 
section, interested persons may instead comment via the Internet to 
[email protected]. Please submit Internet comments as an ASCII file, 
avoiding the use of special characters and any form of encryption. If 
you do not receive confirmation from the system that your Internet 
message was received, contact us directly at (916) 978-6043.
    Comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, will 
be available for public review at the mailing address shown in the 
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 
p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents 
may request confidentiality. If you wish us to withhold your name and/
or address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of 
Information Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of 
your written comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent 
allowed by law. We will not, however, consider anonymous comments. All 
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals 
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations 
or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their 
entirety.

Authority

    This notice is published in accordance with section 1503.1 of the 
Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 through 
1508), implementing the procedural requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), 
and the Department of the Interior Manual (516 DM 1-6), and is in the 
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian 
Affairs by 209 DM 8.

    Dated: January 9, 2001.
Michael Anderson,
Acting Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 01-1115 Filed 1-11-01; 8:45 am]
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