[Federal Register Volume 66, Number 197 (Thursday, October 11, 2001)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51946-51947]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 01-25494]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 
Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visit and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

October 4, 2001.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric applications have been 
filed with Commission and are available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: New Major License.
    b. Project No.: 2030-036.
    c. Date filed: June 29, 2001.
    d. Applicants: Portland General Electric Company (PGE) and the 
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon (CTWS).
    e. Name of Project: Pelton Round Butte Hydroelectric Project.
    f. Location: The project is located on the Deschutes River in 
Jefferson, Marion, and Wasco Counties, Oregon. The project occupies 
lands of the Deschutes National Forest; Mt Hood National Forest; 
Willamette National Forest; Crooked River National Grassland; Bureau of 
Land Management; and tribal lands of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    h. Applicant Contacts: Julie Keil, Director, Hydro Licensing, 
Portland General Electric Company, 121 SW Salmon Street, Portland, OR 
97204, (503) 464-8864; and James Manion, General Manager, Warm Springs 
Power Enterprises, P.O. Box 690, Warm Springs, OR 97761, (541) 553-
1046.
    i. FERC Contact: Any questions on this notice should be addressed 
to Nan Allen at (202) 219-2839. E-mail address: [email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: December 7, 2001.
    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. Scoping Comments, protests and 
interventions may be filed electronically via the Internet in lieu of 
paper. See, 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the 
Commission's web site under the ``e-Filing'' link.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
interveners filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person on the official service list for the 
project. Further, if an intervener 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. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    l. The Round Butte development works consisting of: (1) The 440-
foot-high, 1,382-foot-long Round Butte dam; (2) a 535,000-acre-foot 
reservoir with a normal pool elevation at 1,945.0 feet mean sea level 
(msl); (3) a spillway intake structure topped with a 30-foot-high, 36-
foot-wide radial gate, and a 1,800-foot-long, 21-foot-diameter spillway 
tunnel; (4) an 85-foot-long, varying in height and width, powerhouse 
intake structure; (5) a 1,425-foot-long, 23-foot-diameter power tunnel; 
(6) a powerhouse containing three turbine generating units with a total 
installed capacity of 247 megawatts (MW); (7) a 12.5-kilovolt (kV), 
10.5-mile-long transmission line extending to the Reregulating dam, and 
a 230-kV, 100-mile-long transmission line extending to Portland 
General's Bethel substation; and (8) appurtenant facilities.\1\
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    \1\ On July 25, 2001, an amendment to the current license was 
approved that would add one 70-kilowatt (kW) turbine generating unit 
with associated support structure at the Round Butte powerhouse. 
This turbine has not yet been installed.
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    The Pelton development consists of: (1) The 204-foot-high, 636-
foot-long thin-arch variable-radius reinforced concrete Pelton dam with 
a crest elevation 1,585 feet msl; (2) a reinforced concrete spillway on 
the left bank with a crest elevation of 1,558 feet msl; (3) Lake 
Simtustus with a gross storage capacity of 31,000 acre-feet and a 
normal maximum surface area of 540 acres at normal maximum water 
surface elevation of 1,580 feet msl; (4) an intake structure at the 
dam; (5) three 16-foot-diameter penstocks, 107 feet long, 116 feet 
long, and 108 feet long, respectively; (6) a powerhouse with three 
turbine/generator units with a total installed capacity of 108 MW; (7) 
a tailrace channel; (8) a 7.9-mile-long, 230-kV transmission line from 
the powerhouse to the Round Butte switchyard; and (9) other 
appurtenances.
    The Reregulating development consists of: (1) The 88-foot-high, 
1,067-foot-long concrete gravity and impervious core rockfilled 
Reregulating dam with a spillway crest elevation of 1,402 feet msl; (2) 
a reservoir with a gross storage capacity of 3,500 acre feet and a 
normal maximum water surface area of 190 acres at normal maximum water 
surface elevation of 1,435 feet

[[Page 51947]]

msl; (3) a powerhouse at the dam containing a 18.9-MW turbine/generator 
unit; (4) a tailrace channel; (5) a 3.2-mile-long, 69-kV transmission 
line from the development to the Warm Springs substation; and (6) other 
appurtenances.
    The project is estimated to generate an average of 1.613 billion 
kilowatthours annually. The dams and existing project facilities are 
owned by the co-applicants.
    m. A copy of the application is on file with the Commission and is 
available for public inspection. This filing may also be viewed on the 
Web at http://www.ferc.gov using the ``RIMS'' link--select ``Docket#'' 
and follow the instructions (call 202-208-2222 for assistance). A copy 
is also available for inspection and reproduction at the address in 
item h above.
    n. Scoping Process.
    The Commission intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) on the project in accordance with the National Environmental 
Policy Act. The EIS will consider both site-specific and cumulative 
environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
action.

Scoping Meetings

    FERC staff will conduct one agency scoping meeting and one public 
meeting. The agency scoping meeting will focus on resource agency and 
non-governmental organization (NGO) concerns, while the public scoping 
meeting is primarily for public input. All interested individuals, 
organizations, and agencies are invited to attend one or both of the 
meetings, and to assist the staff in identifying the scope of the 
environmental issues that should be analyzed in the EIS. The times and 
locations of these meetings are as follows:

Daytime Meeting

Wednesday, November 7, 2001, 9:00 a.m., Maccie Conroy Center, Jefferson 
County Fair Complex, 430 SW Fairgrounds Road, Madras, Oregon

Evening Meeting

Wednesday, November 7, 2001, 7 p.m., Kah-Nee-Ta Resort, Highway 8, Warm 
Springs, Oregon

    Copies of the Scoping Document (SD1) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EIS were distributed to the parties on the 
Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 will be available at the 
scoping meeting or may be viewed on the Web at http://www.ferc.gov 
using the ``RIMS'' link, select ``Docket#'' and follow the instructions 
(call 202-208-2222 for assistance).

Site Visit

    The applicants and Commission staff will conduct a project site 
visit beginning at 8:30 a.m. on November 6, 2001. All interested 
individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to attend. All 
participants should meet at the Round Butte Overlook Park. All 
participants are responsible for their own transportation to the site. 
Anyone with questions about the site visit should contact Marty May, 
PGE, at phone 503-464-7578 or FAX 503-464-2944 by Wednesday, October 
31.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the Commission staff will: (1) Summarize 
the environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the 
EIS; (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 EIS, including viewpoints in opposition to, 
or in support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the 
resource issues to be addressed in the EIS; and (5) identify those 
issues that require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that 
do not require a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings are recorded by a stenographer and become part of the 
formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.
    Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental 
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend one or both of the 
meetings and to assist the staff in defining and clarifying the issues 
to be addressed in the EIS.

David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 01-25494 Filed 10-10-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P