[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 183 (Friday, September 20, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 59306-59307]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-24011]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Notice of Availability of the Final Environmental Impact 
Statement for the Teayawa Energy Center, Riverside County, CA

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (BIA) has filed a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) 
for the Teayawa Energy Center, located on the Torres Martinez Indian 
Reservation in Riverside County, California, with the U.S. 
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA's Notice of Availability 
for the FEIS appeared in the Federal Register on Friday, September 13, 
2002. The FEIS is available for public review. Details on the project 
and the contents of the FEIS are provided under the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section.

DATES: Written comments on the FEIS must arrive by October 12, 2002. 
The Record of Decision will be issued on or after October 15, 2002.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry written comments to Ronald 
Jaeger, Regional Director, Pacific Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, California 95825-1846.
    Copies of the FEIS have been sent to all agencies and individuals 
who participated in the scoping process, public hearings, and those who 
commented on the Draft EIS. To obtain a copy of the FEIS, please write 
or call William Allan, Environmental Protection Specialist, at the 
above address, telephone (916) 978-6043. Copies of the FEIS are also 
available at the Tribal Hall, Torres Martinez Reservation, 66-725 
Martinez Road, Thermal, California 92254 and at the City of Mecca 
Library, 65250 Coahuilla Street, Mecca, California 92254.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Allan, (916) 978-6043.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Calpine Corporation, through an agreement 
with the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, plans to construct, 
own, and operate the Teayawa Energy Center (TEC), a 600-megawatt, 
natural-gas-fired power plant located on a 41.5-acre parcel of Tribal 
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 would be supplied to the energy center from a Southern 
California intrastate pipeline. A new gas pipeline approximately 12 
miles long will connect TEC to the intrastate gas pipeline system. The 
preferred natural-gas-line route extends north from the site within an 
existing utility corridor to an interconnection point on the nearest 
natural-gas transmission pipeline, located north of the Interstate 10 
(I-10) freeway. Roughly 4,000 acre-feet per year of process water for 
cooling would be supplied to the energy center. The preferred water 
supply for the project would include a connection to the Coachella 
branch of the All American Canal (Coachella Canal) for cooling water, 
and an onsite groundwater well for potable water and backup purposes 
when canal water is unavailable.
    The energy center would use a ``zero liquid discharge'' system for 
treatment of process wastewater, including cooling tower blowdown. 
Cooling water would be cycled approximately 10 to 14 times, depending 
on water quality, in the cooling tower. Wastewater would be 
concentrated to a sludge-like consistency and evaporated in onsite 
ponds. The resulting mineral concentrations that build up in the 
evaporation ponds would be stored, dried and eventually hauled offsite 
for disposal at an appropriate landfill. Sanitary waste would be 
collected in a storage tank and periodically trucked to an offsite 
treatment plant, or disposed using a septic tank and leachfield, if 
soil conditions permit.
    Electricity produced by the energy center would be transformed up 
to transmission level voltage in an onsite switchyard that would be 
interconnected to the double-circuit, 230-kilovolt (kV) transmission 
lines owned by the Imperial Irrigation District (IID). These existing 
transmission lines are located immediately east of the proposed site, 
on the eastern edge of the Coachella Canal. To address potential 
localized transmission system congestion and reliability concerns, the 
project would also require construction of a new electrical 
transmission line segment between the site and an IID substation in the 
City of Coachella. In addition, re-conductoring and related 
improvements to approximately 40 miles of existing offsite transmission 
lines owned by IID and Southern California Edison (SCE) and situated 
between the Coachella substation and the SCE grid will also be 
required.
    Alternatives to the proposed project that are considered in the 
FEIS include alternative natural-gas pipeline routes, alternative water 
supplies, a smaller energy center, and no action.
    Areas of environmental concern addressed in the FEIS include land 
use; geology and soils; water resources; agricultural resources; 
biological resources; cultural resources; mineral resources; 
paleontological resources; traffic and transportation; noise; air 
quality; public health/environmental hazards; public services and 
utilities; hazardous materials, hazardous waste handling and worker 
safety; socio-economics/environmental justice; Indian trust assets; and 
visual resources.

Public Comment Availability

    Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be 
available for public review at the mailing address shown in the 
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 9 a.m. to 4 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

[[Page 59307]]

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, part 1500 through 
1508) implementing the procedural requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 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: September 6, 2002.
Neal A. McCaleb,
Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 02-24011 Filed 9-19-02; 8:45 am]
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