[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 5, 2008)]
[Notices]
[Pages 11912-11913]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-4223]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Project No. 12632-000]


East Texas Electric Cooperative, Inc.; Notice of Scoping Meeting 
and Soliciting Scoping Comments for an Applicant Prepared Environmental 
Assessment Using the Alternative Licensing Process

February 28, 2008.
    a. Type of Application: Alternative Licensing Process.
    b. Project No.: 12632-000.
    c. Applicant: East Texas Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Cooperative).
    d. Name of Project: Lake Livingston Hydroelectric Project.
    e. Location: At the Lake Livingston dam, on the Trinity River, in 
San Jacinto, Polk, Trinity, and Walker Counties, Texas. No federal 
lands would be affected.
    f. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
    g. Potential Applicant Contact: Edd Hargett, East Texas Electric 
Cooperative, Inc., 2905 Westward Drive, P.O. Box 631623, Nacogdoches, 
TX 75963; (936) 560-9532; [email protected].
    h. FERC Contact: Sarah Florentino, at (202) 502-6863 or 
[email protected].
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: April 25, 2008.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE., Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
intervenors 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 intervenor 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.
    Scoping comments may be filed electronically via the Internet in 
lieu of paper. The Commission strongly encourages electronic filings. 
See 18 CFR 385.2001(a)(1)(iii) and the instructions on the Commission's 
Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) under the ``e-Filing'' link.
    k. The proposed project would use the following existing 
facilities: (1) The Trinity River Authority's (TRA) existing 14,400-
foot-long (approximate) Lake Livingston dam, having a crest elevation 
of 145.0 feet mean sea level (msl), and consisting of a basic earth 
embankment section, outlet works, and spillway; and (2) the 83,000-acre 
Lake Livingston, with a normal water surface elevation of 131.0 feet 
msl and gross storage capacity of 1,750,000 acre-feet. The proposed 
project would consist of the following new facilities: (1) An intake 
structure and headrace channel approximately 800 feet long; (2) three 
steel penstocks, about 14 feet in diameter and 450 feet in length; (3) 
a powerhouse containing three generating units, having a total 
installed capacity of 24 MW; (4) an approximate 2,000-feet-long 
tailrace channel; (5) an approximate 2.5-mile-long, 138-kilovolt 
transmission line interconnecting the project with Entergy's existing 
Rich substation near

[[Page 11913]]

Goodrich; and (6) an electric switchyard and other appurtenant 
facilities. The project would have an estimated annual generation of 
124.030 gigawatt-hours, which the Cooperative would sell at wholesale 
to its constituent electric cooperatives.

l. Scoping Process

    The Cooperative will use the Commission's alternative licensing 
process (ALP). Under the ALP, the Cooperative will prepare an Applicant 
Prepared Environmental Assessment (APEA) and license application for 
the Lake Livingston Hydroelectric Project.
    The Cooperative expects to file with the Commission, the APEA and 
the license application for the Lake Livingston Hydroelectric Project 
by March 2009. Although the Cooperative's intent is to prepare an 
environmental assessment (EA), there is the possibility that an 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) will be required. Nevertheless, 
this meeting will satisfy the NEPA scoping requirements, irrespective 
of whether an EA or EIS is issued by the Commission.
    The purpose of this notice is to inform you of the opportunity to 
participate in the upcoming scoping meetings identified below, and to 
solicit your scoping comments.

Scoping Meetings

    The Cooperative and Commission staff will hold two scoping 
meetings, one in the daytime and one in the evening, to help us 
identify the scope of issues to be addressed in the APEA.
    The daytime scoping meeting will focus on resource agency concerns, 
while the evening 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 environmental issues that should be analyzed in the 
APEA. The times and locations of these meetings are as follows:

 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Daytime meeting                      Evening meeting
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Wednesday, March 26, 2008            Wednesday, March 26, 2008
       1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.                  6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
    Central Standard Time (CST)                      CST
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         Community Meeting Room,
               Livingston-Polk County Chamber of Commerce,
                      1001 U.S. Hwy 59 Loop North,
                        Livingston, Texas 77351.
                             (936) 327-4929
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    To help focus discussions, Scoping Document 1 (SD1), which outlines 
the subject areas to be addressed in the APEA, was mailed to the 
individuals and entities on the Commission's mailing list and the 
Cooperative's distribution list on February 27, 2008. Copies of the SD1 
also will be available at the scoping meetings. SD1 is available for 
review at the Commission in the Public Reference Room, or may be viewed 
on the Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov using the 
``eLibrary'' link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three 
digits in the docket number field to access the document. For 
assistance, contact FERC Online Support at [email protected], 
or toll-free at 1-866-208-3676, or for TTY, (202) 502-8659.
    You may also register online at http://www.ferc.gov/docs-filing/esubscription.asp to be notified via email of new filings and issuances 
related to this or other pending projects. For assistance, contact FERC 
Online Support.
    Based on all written comments received, a Scoping Document 2 (SD2) 
may be issued. SD2 will include a revised list of issues, as determined 
by the scoping process.

Meeting Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the APEA; 
(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 APEA, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the APEA; and (5) identify those issues that 
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not 
require a detailed analysis.
    Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental 
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend the meetings and to 
assist the Cooperative and Commission staff in defining and clarifying 
the issues to be addressed in the APEA. Please review the Cooperative's 
Preliminary Application Document (PAD) and SD1 in preparation for the 
scoping meetings. Instructions on how to obtain copies of the PAD and 
SD1 are included above.

Meeting Procedures

    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become 
part of the formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.

Site Visit

    The Cooperative and Commission staff will conduct a site visit of 
the project on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, following the afternoon 
session of the scoping meeting.
    The site visit to Lake Livingston dam will take place at TRA's Lake 
Livingston project headquarters. The physical address of the project is 
5170 S. FM 1988, Livingston, Texas 77351. Access to the dam site is 
secure, and all individuals wishing to participate in the site visit 
must register and provide a copy of a photo identification in advance. 
If you want to attend the site visit, please notify Brian Lawson, the 
Cooperative's Project Manager, and send him a faxed or scanned copy of 
a photo ID not later than March 19, 2008, using the following contact 
information: Brian Lawson, Project Manager, GDS Associates, Inc., 1850 
Parkway Place, Suite 800, Marietta, GA 30067, Phone: 770-425-8100, Fax: 
770-426-0303, [email protected].

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. E8-4223 Filed 3-4-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P