[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 37 (Monday, February 25, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8573-8575]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-4320]


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TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY


Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Reservoir 
Operating Policies

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority.

ACTION: Notice of Intent.

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SUMMARY: This notice is provided in accordance with the Council on 
Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 to 1508) and 
the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) procedures implementing the 
National Environmental Policy Act. In response to recommendations from 
its citizen advisory group, the Regional Resource Stewardship Council, 
and other individuals and stakeholder groups, TVA is conducting a 
comprehensive reservoir operations study (ROS). The purpose of the ROS 
is to determine if changes in TVA's reservoir operating policies would 
produce greater overall public value. As part of the study, TVA will 
prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (EIS). TVA will 
use the EIS process to elicit and prioritize the values and concerns of 
stakeholders; identify issues, trends, events, and tradeoffs affecting 
reservoir operating policies; formulate, evaluate, and compare 
alternative reservoir operating policies; provide opportunities for 
public review and comment; and ensure that any decision to change its 
operating policies reflect a full range of stakeholder input. Public 
comments are invited concerning both the scope of the environmental 
issues and the alternative operating policies that should be addressed 
in the EIS.

DATES: Comments on the scope of the issues and alternatives to be 
addressed in the EIS must be postmarked or e-mailed by April 26, 2002.

TO COMMENT ON THE STUDY OR FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: David Nye, 
ROS Project Manager, Tennessee Valley Authority, 400 West Summit Hill 
Drive, WT 11A, Knoxville, Tennessee 37902-1499; call the TVA ROS EIS 
toll free number (1-888-882-7675); fax to 865-632-3146; or access the 
TVA web site at www.tva.com.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    A wholly owned corporation of the U.S. Government, TVA was 
established by an act of Congress in 1933 to foster the social and 
economic welfare of the people of the Tennessee Valley region and to 
promote the wise use and development of the region's natural resources. 
Section 9a of the TVA Act provides the historical and legal context for 
TVA's reservoir operating policies. Added by Congress as an amendment 
in 1935, Section 9a directs TVA to manage the reservoir system 
primarily to promote navigation and control floods and, to the extent 
consistent with these purposes, for the generation of electricity.
    In carrying out its mandate, TVA developed an integrated system 
that includes 49 dams and reservoirs; 48 of which were built on the 
Tennessee River and its tributaries and one, Great Falls, is located on 
a tributary of the Cumberland River. The dams and reservoirs, also 
referred to as projects, differ in age, size, and specific authorized 
purposes. Based on the authorized purpose(s), TVA dams and reservoirs 
fall into one of four groups: (1) Multipurpose tributary projects which 
provide seasonal stream flow regulation for flood control, navigation, 
and hydroelectric power generation; (2) multipurpose main Tennessee and 
Clinch River projects pass rainfall runoff, generate electric power, 
and maintain minimum levels for commercial navigation; (3) single 
purpose power projects which generate hydroelectric power; and (4) 
smaller non-power projects which provide local flood relief, water 
supply, water quality, and/or recreation.
    The drainage area of the Tennessee River system covers about 41,000 
square miles. This area includes 125 counties within much of Tennessee 
and parts of six other states: Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, 
North Carolina, and Virginia. The larger TVA Power Service Area 
includes 201 counties and about 80,000 square mile in the same seven 
states.
    TVA manages the reservoir system, which includes 14 navigation 
locks operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to provide an 800-
mile commercial navigation channel from the mouth of the Tennessee 
River at Paducah, Kentucky, to the headwaters of the Tennessee River at 
Knoxville, Tennessee, and downstream parts of the Clinch and Hiwassee 
Rivers. TVA maintains water levels sufficient to provide a minimum 
navigation channel depth of nine feet (with a two-foot overdraft) 
throughout this navigable waterway.
    Thirteen multipurpose tributary projects, built to reduce the risk 
of flood damage along the river, are operated to regulate flood crests 
and store runoff for later hydroelectric generation. Powerhouses were 
built at 30 TVA dams, including its Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage 
Facility, which now provides approximately 5,000 megawatts of hydro 
generation capacity. Although the powerhouses were initially built to 
provide base-load capacity, the demand for power in the Tennessee 
Valley exceeded the hydropower capacity of the reservoir system during 
the 1950s. As fossil and nuclear base-load generating sources were 
added, operation of the hydro system was modified to take advantage of 
the versatility and dependability of hydropower to meet peak power 
demands and improve power system reliability. Today, depending on 
annual rainfall and runoff, the hydro system produces 10 to 15 percent 
of TVA's annual average system generation output.
    The annual rainfall and runoff patterns in the Tennessee Valley 
govern the operation of the reservoir system. Operating guides, 
developed from long-term stream-flow records and project requirements 
and constraints, identify water levels that should be met in each 
reservoir at various times during the

[[Page 8574]]

year. December through early April is the major flood season in the 
Tennessee Valley because storms tend to be larger and more runoff 
occurs during this part of the year. During this period, TVA tributary 
reservoirs are lowered to a minimum level to provide storage capacity 
that reduces the risk of flooding at major damage centers, including 
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and other communities along the Tennessee River 
and its tributaries while allowing for hydroelectric power production 
during periods of peak power demand. Beginning in April, when flood 
risks typically diminish, tributary reservoirs are allowed to fill to 
reach their summer recreation level by June 1. During June and July, 
drawdown of the tributary reservoirs is limited to maintaining 
downstream minimum flows, navigation channel depths, hydro power 
generation, cooling water for fossil and nuclear plants, and 
recreational benefits. Between August 1 and January 1, the reservoirs 
are drawn down to flood storage capacity levels based on the economic 
use of the water to meet power generation and water quality objectives.
    In addition to the main objectives, TVA operates the dams and 
reservoirs as a truly integrated system for the benefit of the Valley 
to provide for such purposes as mosquito control, aquatic plant 
management, water quality, recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, 
municipal and industrial water supply, commercial and industrial 
development, and flows for power plant cooling.
    TVA evaluated its reservoir operating policies in the late 1980s 
and, in February 1991, the TVA Board approved the Tennessee River and 
Reservoir System Operation and Planning Review EIS. Policy changes 
recommended in that EIS focused primarily on restricting lake level 
drawdown at multipurpose tributary projects to increase recreation 
opportunities and setting targets to improve water quality. The scope 
of the ROS EIS presently in progress will be more comprehensive in its 
approach and will evaluate all aspects of TVA's reservoir operating 
policies. The ROS EIS will identify and address alternative ways TVA 
could operate the reservoir system to use the available water in ways 
which would create greater value for stakeholders. Consistent with the 
recommendations of the Regional Resource Stewardship Council and other 
groups and individuals, the objectives of this study include but are 
not limited to:
     Clarify the values stakeholders have about the river and 
reservoir system;
     Identify key measures for judging future reservoir 
operating performance;
     Identify issues, trends, events, and tradeoffs which 
should be considered in formulating alternative reservoir operating 
policies;
     Develop clear reservoir operating policy alternatives not 
constrained by present operating policies;
     Provide factual information on the environmental, social, 
and economic effects of those alternatives; and
     Provide opportunities for stakeholders to actively 
participate in the process.

Preliminary Identification of Issues to Be Addressed

    Based on internal and interagency discussions, TVA anticipates that 
the major issues to be addressed in the ROS EIS will be navigation, 
flood risk, power production, water quality, water supply, threatened 
and endangered species, wetlands, adjacent land use, recreation, and 
social and economic considerations. Issues related to air quality, 
climate, geology, groundwater, aquatic plants, invasive species, vector 
control, and terrestrial ecology also will be addressed; however, it is 
expected that these latter issues may not require detailed evaluation. 
This list of issues is preliminary and is intended to facilitate public 
comment on the scope of this EIS. It is not intended to be all-
inclusive nor does it imply any predetermination of potential impacts. 
TVA invites suggestions concerning the list of issues which should be 
addressed.

The Proposed Action

    The proposed action is to implement reservoir operation policies 
that create greater overall public value.

Alternatives

    As required by CEQ regulations (40 CFR 1502.2(e)), TVA will 
evaluate a reasonable range of alternatives, including the present 
operating policies as a No Action Alternative. Alternatives will 
address TVA's major reservoir operating objectives--the purposes for 
which TVA manages the river and reservoir system. These include 
navigation, flood risk reduction, power production, water quality, 
water supply, recreation, and economic development. At this time, 
alternative reservoir operating policies are likely to include 
increasing or decreasing seasonal reservoir pool levels depending on 
hydrology and project constraints, and increasing or decreasing the 
timing and amount of releases from the reservoirs. For example, 
alternatives might include: (1) Extending or shortening drawdown dates 
for tributary projects to provide higher or lower reservoir pool 
levels, (2) increasing or decreasing the amount and duration of 
releases from TVA dams to provide increased minimum flows, (3) 
increasing or decreasing the depth of the commercial navigation 
channel, and (4) increasing or decreasing the amount of water in 
reservoir storage potentially affecting flood risk.
    Water quality, flood risk, and weekly scheduling models of the 
reservoir system will be used to determine the flexibility of present 
reservoir operations and to maximize operating objectives with a 
minimum of constraints. Model results will be used to bracket the 
potential effects of the alternative operating policies evaluated in 
the EIS. The EIS will also present a review of the changes made in 
1991, when the last evaluation of TVA's reservoir operating policies 
was conducted. That part of the study will provide a baseline for 
evaluating impacts of the alternatives selected for detailed analysis 
in this EIS. The results of the evaluation of specific alternatives on 
environmental, cultural, and socioeconomic resources, together with 
engineering and economic considerations, will be used to select a 
preferred alternative operating policy.

Scoping Process

    CEQ regulations (40 CFR 1501.7) require the use of an early and 
open process for determining the scope of an EIS and for identifying 
the significant issues related to the proposed action. Scoping is 
integral to the EIS process. It is a procedure that solicits public 
input to ensure that: (1) All pertinent 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. To 
ensure that the full range of issues and alternatives related to this 
proposal are addressed, TVA invites Federal agencies, state and local 
governments, the general public, and others to comment on the scope of 
the ROS EIS. In addition to the Regional Resource Stewardship Council, 
TVA will also rely on individuals in a public review group and an 
interagency team, as well as selected external subject matter experts, 
for input to the study. Agencies invited to participate as part of the 
interagency team include U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service; U.S. Forest Service; U.S. Coast Guard, National 
Weather Service, National Park Service, Native American Tribal 
representatives, a representative from each of the Valley states; and 
others.

[[Page 8575]]

    TVA will hold 21 public information meetings about the ROS EIS at 
locations throughout the region between March 21 and April 18, 2002. 
The dates and locations of the information meetings will be posted on 
the ROS EIS web site (www.tva.com) and published in local and regional 
newspapers. Notices about these meetings will also be sent directly to 
members of the public who have previously indicated an interest in 
TVA's reservoir operating policy through attendance at public meetings 
and through correspondence with Congress and TVA. TVA will continue to 
develop and maintain a mailing list of individuals, agencies, 
organizations, and groups who have requested notices and updates of the 
ROS process. TVA will also maintain a public reference file at selected 
libraries across the region, which will include copies of all written 
correspondence, documents, meeting notices, agendas, and summaries.
    After consideration of the comments received during this scoping 
period, TVA will develop and distribute a document which will summarize 
public and agency comments that were received, the issues and 
alternatives to be addressed in the EIS, and the schedule for 
completing the EIS process. The scoping document should be available in 
late spring 2002. It will be distributed to public libraries, loaded on 
the TVA EIS web site, and mailed out upon request.
    After evaluating the issues and the potential environmental 
consequences of each alternative, TVA will issue a draft EIS for public 
review and comment. The draft EIS will be transmitted to the 
Environmental Protection Agency for publication of a Notice of 
Availability in the Federal Register. TVA will solicit written comments 
on the draft EIS and hold a series of public information meetings to 
receive comments. TVA plans to issue the draft EIS in spring 2003.

    Dated: February 15, 2002.
Kathryn J. Jackson,
Executive Vice President, River System Operations & Environment.
[FR Doc. 02-4320 Filed 2-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 8120-08-U