[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 14, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 14975-14977]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-6333]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Environmental Impact Statement for Addition of Electric 
Generation Baseload Capacity in Tennessee

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will prepare an 
environmental impact statement (EIS) for the proposed construction and 
operation of a natural gas-fired generating plant in Tennessee. The 
plant would supply intermediate or baseload capacity to the TVA 
electric generation system to meet growing power demands. The EIS will 
evaluate the potential environmental impacts of constructing and 
operating a combined cycle combustion turbine plant. TVA is considering 
sites near its 500 kV Franklin substation, including at least one site 
on the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, near 
Tullahoma, Tennessee. TVA will use the EIS process to obtain public 
involvement on this proposal. Public comment is invited concerning both 
the scope of the EIS and environmental issues that should be addressed 
as a part of this EIS.

[[Page 14976]]


DATES: Comments on the scope and environmental issues for the EIS must 
be postmarked or e-mailed no later than April 16, 2001, to ensure 
consideration. Late comments will receive every consideration possible.

ADDRESSES: Written comments should be sent to Bruce L. Yeager, Senior 
Specialist, National Environmental Policy Act, Tennessee Valley 
Authority, mail stop WT 8C, 400 West Summit Hill Drive, Knoxville, 
Tennessee 37902-1499. Comments may be e-mailed to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Roy V. Carter, P.E., EIS Project 
Manager, Environmental Research Center, Tennessee Valley Authority, 
mail stop CEB 4C, Muscle Shoals, Alabama 35662-1010. E-mail may be sent 
to [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Project Description

    TVA proposes to construct and operate an electric power plant as 
early as June 2003. The proposed plant would be a combined cycle 
natural gas-fired combustion turbine plant for baseload or intermediate 
operation. Low sulfur fuel oil could be used as a backup fuel, 
depending on fuel pricing and availability. The generation capacity of 
a plant would be typically 510 megawatt (MW). Candidate sites were 
identified through a detailed screening process that considered: (1) 
TVA's transmission system capacity at the locale; (2) reliable and 
economical long-term supply of natural gas; (3) engineering suitability 
of the site; (4) compatibility with surrounding land use; and (5) 
environmental factors including wetlands, floodplains, water supply, 
water quality, air quality, and historic and archaeological resources.
    A plant could consist of two combustion turbines such as the 
General Electric Model GE 7FA with a rated net power output of 170 MW 
each. Two heat recovery steam generators (HRSG) would be used to 
generate steam from the turbine exhaust gas waste heat. The HRSGs may 
also have direct firing of natural gas to supplement the exhaust heat 
content. The resulting steam flow is then passed through a steam 
turbine which operates a generator to produce an additional 170 MW.
    The proposed sites would be located near both TVA power 
transmission lines (161 kilovolt (kV) or 500 kV) and adequate natural 
gas service to minimize the lengths, and therefore cost, of these 
interconnections. Additional ancillary equipment beyond that required 
for a peaking plant would include cooling towers that supply cooling 
water for steam condensers. These cooling towers require a source of 
water to make up for both evaporative losses and the blowdown necessary 
to maintain water quality in the cooling tower. As a result, there 
would be an intake pumping station constructed in a large stream to 
supply the water. In the case of AEDC sites, the water supply source is 
anticipated to be the Woods Reservoir. A water pipeline would be 
constructed to connect the water supply with the plant. The cooling 
tower blowdown is a heated wastewater with a high dissolved solids 
content requiring treatment and/or disposal. Typical practice would be 
to construct a pipeline to a receiving stream having the capacity to 
assimilate the wastewater. An alternative would be to treat the 
blowdown on-site and recycle the water as cooling tower makeup water. 
This option would require construction of an onsite treatment facility 
and disposal of resulting sludge. Additionally, a water treatment 
facility would be required to supply demineralized water for various 
plant uses.
    A short natural gas pipeline lateral would be needed to connect the 
sites with gas supplies and 20 or so miles of existing high pressure 
gas line upstream of the tap point would be upgraded.

TVA's Integrated Resource Plan and the Need for Power

    This EIS will tier from TVA's Energy Vision 2020: An Integrated 
Resource Plan and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. 
Energy Vision 2020 was completed in December 1995 and a Record of 
Decision issued on February 28, 1996 (61 FR 7572). Energy Vision 2020 
analyzed a full range of supply-side and demand-side options to meet 
customer energy needs for the period 1995 to 2020. These options were 
ranked using several criteria including environmental performance. 
Favorable options were formulated into strategies. A group of options 
drawn from several effective strategies was chosen as TVA's preferred 
alternative. The supply-side options selected to meet peaking and 
baseload capacity needs through the 2005 period included: (1) Addition 
of simple cycle or combined cycle combustion turbines to TVA's 
generation system, (2) purchase of call options for peaking or baseload 
capacity, and (3) market purchases of peaking or baseload capacity. The 
short-term action plan of Energy Vision 2020 identified a need for 
3,000 MW of baseload and peaking additions through the year 2002. This 
is in addition to the baseload capacity additions of the successful 
completion of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 and the return to service 
of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3.
    Each year TVA provides updated projections of supply and demand for 
the TVA sub-region of the Southeastern Electric Reliability Council 
(SERC) for the U.S. Department of Energy's annual report EIA-411. The 
1999 report shows expected baseload demands growing at 2.2 percent from 
1999 to 2003 and beyond. The net capacity resources needed to meet the 
growth in demand increases 2,000 megawatts by year 2001, and 3,400 
megawatts by year 2003. (See line item 13 on Table--Item 2.1 Projected 
Capacity and Demand--Summer of the EIA-411 report.) The addition of the 
combustion turbines is needed by TVA to meet projected regional power 
demand for baseload capacity.
    Since 1995 additional power needs have been met or will be met in 
the following ways: (1) Continuing modernization of existing TVA 
hydroelectric plants (both conventional and pumped storage) will add 
approximately 388 MW of peaking capacity through 2002; (2) the Red 
Hills Power Project, a 440 MW lignite coal fired plant will begin 
commercial baseload operation in 2001 (TVA Record of Decision, 63 FR 
44944); (3) 680 MW of simple cycle combustion turbines were constructed 
at the TVA Johnsonville and Gallatin Fossil Plants and began operation 
during June and July 2000 (TVA Record of Decision, 64 FR 38932); (4) 
680 MW of simple cycle combustion turbines are under construction at 
the Lagoon Creek Combustion Turbine Plant site in Haywood County, 
Tennessee, with commercial operation as early as June 2001 (TVA Record 
of Decision, 65 FR 30469); (5) 340 MW of simple cycle combustion 
turbines are planned for a site near DeKalb in Kemper County, 
Mississippi, with commercial operation expected by June or July 2002 
(Notice for Draft EIS, 65 FR 78484, Record of Decision expected in May 
2001); (6) various power purchase agreements in effect over this 
period; (7) demand side customer service programs continue to be 
implemented through TVA power distributors with an estimated 154 MW of 
capacity added from 1995 through 1999 and an additional 264 MW from 
2000 through 2002; (8) operation of the 14 MW emergency diesel 
generators at the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant site; and 
(9) a Green Power Program that would begin in 2000 as a market test 
with several MW of capacity. Technologies for this program

[[Page 14977]]

may include landfill gas, photovoltaics, and wind.
    Because Energy Vision 2020 identified and evaluated alternative 
supply-side and demand-side energy resources and technologies for 
meeting peak and baseload capacity needs, this EIS will not reevaluate 
those alternatives. This EIS will focus on the site-specific impacts of 
constructing and operating combustion turbine combined cycle plants at 
candidate sites.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

    The EIS will describe the existing environmental and socioeconomic 
resources at and in the vicinity of each candidate site that would be 
affected by construction and operation of a power plant. TVA's 
evaluation of environmental impacts to these resources will include, 
but not necessarily be limited to the potential impacts on air quality, 
water quality, aquatic and terrestrial ecology, endangered and 
threatened species, wetlands, aesthetics and visual resources, noise, 
land use, historic and archaeological resources, and socioeconomic 
resources.

Alternatives

    The results of evaluating the potential environmental impacts and 
other important issues identified in the scoping process, as well as, 
engineering and economic considerations will be used by TVA in 
selecting a preferred alternative. At this time, the range of 
alternatives TVA is considering for detailed evaluation include no 
action and construction and operation of a combined cycle baseload 
plant at one of the candidate sites.

Scoping Process

    Scoping, which is integral to the NEPA process, is a procedure that 
solicits public input to the EIS process to ensure that: (1) Issues are 
identified early and properly studied; (2) issues of little 
significance do not consume substantial time and effort; (3) the draft 
EIS is thorough and balanced; and (4) delays caused by an inadequate 
EIS are avoided. TVA's NEPA procedures require that the scoping process 
commence soon after a decision has been reached to prepare an EIS in 
order to provide an early and open process for determining the scope 
and for identifying the significant issues related to a proposed 
action. The scope of alternatives and issues to be addressed in the 
draft EIS will be determined, in part, from written comments submitted 
by mail or e-mail, and comments presented orally or in writing at 
public meetings. The preliminary identification in this notice of 
reasonable alternatives and environmental issues is not meant to be 
exhaustive or final.
    The scoping process will include both interagency and public 
scoping. The public is invited to submit written comments or e-mail 
comments on the scope of this EIS no later than the date given under 
the DATES section of this notice.
    TVA conducted a public scoping meeting near the proposed sites. The 
meeting was held at the University of Tennessee Space Institute main 
auditorium near Tullahoma, Tennessee, on March 8, 2001. At the meeting, 
TVA management and project staff presented overviews of the EIS process 
and the proposed power plant project, answered questions and solicited 
comments on the issues that the public would like addressed in the EIS. 
These meetings were publicized through notices in local newspapers, by 
TVA press releases, and in meetings between TVA officials and local 
elected officials preceding the public meetings.
    The agencies to be included in the interagency scoping are U.S. 
Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tennessee 
Department of Environment and Conservation, the Tennessee State 
Historic Preservation Officer, the U.S. Air Force and other federal, 
state, and local agencies, as appropriate.
    After consideration of the scoping comments, TVA will further 
develop alternatives and environmental issues to be addressed in the 
EIS. Following analysis of the environmental consequences of each 
alternative, TVA will prepare a draft EIS for public review and 
comment. Notice of availability of the draft EIS will be published by 
the Environmental Protection Agency in the Federal Register. TVA will 
solicit written comments on the draft EIS, and information about 
possible public meetings to comment on the draft EIS will be announced. 
TVA expects to release a draft EIS by June 2001 and a final EIS by 
September 2001.

    Dated: March 8, 2001.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
[FR Doc. 01-6333 Filed 3-13-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-U