[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 34 (Wednesday, February 20, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7732-7733]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-4052]


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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) is providing this notice 
pursuant to the Council on Environmental Quality's regulations (40 CFR 
1500-1508), TVA's procedures implementing the National Environmental 
Policy Act, and section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act 
and its implementing regulations (36 CFR part 800).
    TVA will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) to assess 
the impact of a proposal made by Pickwick Power, LLC (PPLLC) to build 
and operate a coal-fired generating plant in Tennessee. The plant would 
supply intermediate or baseload capacity to the TVA electric generation 
system to meet growing power demands. PPLLC has proposed a site in 
Hardin County near Savannah, Tennessee, near the west shore of the 
Tennessee River at mile 203.
    The following Federal actions are proposed at this time so that 
PPLLC can undertake the project:
     TVA's entering into a contract with PPLLC for buying 
electricity from the facility, interconnecting the facility with the 
TVA transmission system, and supplying the fuel and limestone for the 
facility.
     TVA's approval under section 26a of the TVA Act for 
PPLLC's construction of barge unloading facilities, water intakes, and 
discharge outfalls associated with the facility. Approvals may also 
have to be obtained from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under section 
404 of the Clean Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act 
of 1899 for construction of the unloading facilities, water intakes, 
and discharge outfalls.
    TVA will use the EIS process to obtain public comments on this 
proposal. This notice invites public comment concerning scope of the 
EIS, alternatives and environmental issues that should be addressed as 
a part of this EIS, and potential for impacts to historic properties 
such as archaeological resources and historic sites and structures.

DATES: Comments must be postmarked or e-mailed no later than March 21, 
2002, to ensure their consideration in determining the scope of issues 
to be addressed and for identifying the significant issues relating to 
the proposed action.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and requests for further information should 
be sent to Peter K. Scheffler, 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].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Project Description

    PPLLC has presented TVA with a proposal to supply baseload or 
intermediate power generated by a 100 Megawatt (MW) electric power 
plant. TVA would provide the fuel for the facility and pay a fee to 
convert the fuel to energy. PPLLC has proposed to build and operate the 
proposed facility at a site in Hardin County. The facility would begin 
generating power in 2004.
    The proposed plant would consist of one coal-fired circulating 
fluidized bed combustion (CFBC) boiler, a steam turbine, and an 
electric generator. These components would be manufactured at existing 
facilities in China and transported to an existing shipyard in China 
for installation on two barges. The barges would also be manufactured, 
and the complete barge-mounted power generation module would be tested, 
in China before transport to the United States.
    The barges would be loaded on a ship for dry transport to Mobile, 
Alabama, where they would then be placed into the water and towed up 
the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway to the proposed plant site. At the 
site, the barges would be removed from the Tennessee River by heavy 
lift, moved with the help of multi-wheeled transporters to a site 
probably several thousand feet west of the river, and placed on a 
foundation designed to fit the bottom of the barges. Final assembly 
would then take place, including connecting to the TVA power system.
    The facility would also include other major balance-of-plant 
components such as barge unloading facilities, fuel handling and 
storage facilities, water intake and discharge structures, and 
electrical interconnection facilities. Barge unloading facilities would 
be constructed capable of unloading the facility barges (as noted 
above) and 1800-ton coal and limestone barges. Because the barge 
unloading facilities would require alteration of the shoreline and 
possibly dredging of the reservoir bottom, they would need approval 
from TVA under section 26a of the TVA Act and probably permits from the 
United States Army Corps of Engineers under section 10 of the Rivers 
and Harbors Act and section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Facilities such 
as conveyors would be needed to transport fuel and limestone to storage 
facilities and to the boiler. Areas would be identified on-site for 
coal and limestone storage. Facilities would also be built to store 
No.2 diesel that would be delivered to the boilers as fuel for standby 
and start-up. An ash disposal landfill of sufficient size to store ash 
generated from the process would be located adjacent to the facility. 
Section 26a approvals from TVA and sections 10 and 404 permits from the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may also be required for process and 
potable water intakes and for wastewater discharge outfalls. To contain 
these various components, the proposed site could be as large as 
several hundred acres.

Background: 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

[[Page 7733]]

service of Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3.
    Each year TVA provides updated projections of supply and demand to 
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 projection (latest available) shows expected baseload demands 
growing at 2.2 percent from 1999 to 2004. The net capacity needed to 
meet the growth in demand is expected to increase by 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 100 MW 
Pickwick Power plant is needed by TVA to meet this projected regional 
power demand for baseload capacity.
    Because Energy Vision 2020 identified and evaluated alternative 
supply-side and demand-side energy resources and technologies for 
meeting peak and baseload capacity needs, these alternatives would not 
be re-evaluated in this EIS. Market power purchases was one supply-side 
option identified in the EIS as necessary for meeting TVA's baseload 
and peaking capacity needs.

Proposed Issues To Be Addressed

    TVA contemplates that the EIS would describe the existing 
environmental and socioeconomic resources affected by transportation of 
the barges to the site, construction of the balance-of-plant components 
on site, and operation of the power plant. TVA's evaluation of 
environmental impacts to these resources would include, but not 
necessarily be limited to, the potential impacts on air quality, water 
quality, aquatic and terrestrial ecology, endangered and threatened 
species, wetlands, floodplains, aesthetics and visual resources, noise, 
land use, historic and archaeological resources, and socioeconomic 
resources.

Alternatives

    At this time, the alternatives TVA has identified for detailed 
evaluation include no action and the proposed plant at the Hardin 
County site. During the scoping process, TVA will investigate the 
feasibility of other alternatives, including technologies and sites, 
which meet PPLLC's purposes and needs and the basic requirements of 
TVA's electricity needs, are reasonably capable of being connected to 
TVA's transmission system, and otherwise fall within the reasonable 
range of alternatives to be evaluated in an EIS.

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 will conduct a public scoping meeting at the Pickwick Landing 
State Park Inn and Conference Center on March 5, 2002. At the meeting, 
TVA management and project staff will present overviews of the EIS 
process, PPLLC staff will present an overview of the proposed power 
plant project, and TVA will answer questions and solicit comments on 
the issues that the public would like addressed in the EIS. This 
meeting will be publicized through notices in local newspapers, TVA 
press releases, information on TVA's Web site at http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports, and meetings between TVA officials and local 
elected officials preceding the public meeting.
    The federal agencies identified at this time for inclusion in the 
interagency scoping are the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. 
Army Corps of Engineers (which has agreed to be a Cooperating Agency in 
preparation of the EIS), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. State 
agencies include the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community 
Development, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, 
Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and the Tennessee State Historic 
Preservation Officer. Regional and local agencies include the Southwest 
Tennessee Development District, Hardin County government, and the 
Hardin County Historian. Indian tribes include the Eastern Band of the 
Cherokee Indians, the United Keetoowah Band of the Cherokee Indians, 
the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, the Chickasaw Nation, the Muscogee 
(Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, the 
Kialegee Tribal Town, the Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town, the 
Thlopthlocco Tribal Town, and the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe. Other 
agencies, as appropriate and identified, will also be included.
    After consideration of the scoping comments, TVA will establish 
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. Copies 
will be sent to public libraries, those requesting a copy, governmental 
agencies, and Indian Tribes, and a copy will be placed on TVA's Web 
site at http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports. TVA will solicit 
written comments on the draft EIS, and information about public 
meetings to comment on the draft EIS will be announced. TVA expects to 
release a draft EIS by October 2002 and a final EIS by January 2003.

    Dated: February 11, 2002.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
[FR Doc. 02-4052 Filed 2-19-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-P