[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 25 (Monday, February 8, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 6168-6169]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-2263]


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DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Forest Service


Angeles National Forest, California; Tehachapi Renewable 
Transmission Project, Supplemental Draft EIS

AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA.

ACTION: Notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental impact 
statement.

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SUMMARY: The Forest Service will prepare a Supplemental Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) to assess the impacts of the 
Station Fire and other project changes affecting National Forest System 
(NFS) lands. After the public review period for the SDEIS, the Forest 
Service will issue its Final EIS. Following release of the Final EIS, 
the Forest Service will issue a Record of Decision (ROD) to document 
the decision to either approve or deny the requested Special Use 
authorization for the Project in response to the application received 
from Southern California Edison for construction of a series of 
transmission system improvements to deliver electricity from new wind 
energy projects in eastern Kern County. The proposed project would be 
located in Kern, Los Angeles, and San Bernardino counties. The purpose 
of the project is to provide the electrical facilities necessary to 
reliably interconnect and integrate in excess of 700 megawatts (MW) and 
up to approximately 4,500 MW of new wind generation in the Tehachapi 
Wind Resource Area, currently being planned or expected in the future, 
thereby assisting SCE and other California utilities to comply with 
California's Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) goals in an expedited 
manner. It would also further address the reliability needs of the 
California Independent System Operator (CATS 0) controlled grid due to 
projected load growth in the Antelope Valley, and address existing 
constraints in the transmission system south of the Lugo Substation in 
Hesperia, California. As the NEPA Lead Agency for the project, the USDA 
Forest Service will conduct a detailed review of the impacts of the 
Station Fire which burned approximately 251 square miles of NFS lands 
in the Angeles National Forest between August 26, 2009 and October 16, 
2009. The burned area includes portions of Segments 6 and 11 of the 
project. An estimated 75% of the project area on National Forest lands 
was affected.
    Changes to the affected environment will be addressed to assess the 
impacts of the Station Fire. In addition, project changes affecting NFS 
lands, which may include new helicopter landing/staging sites (a.k.a. 
fly-yards), pulling/splicing locations, alternate access roads, and 
changes in tower design will be analyzed in the SDEIS. The USDA Forest 
Service is providing notice of this analysis so that interested and 
affected individuals are aware of how they may participate and 
contribute to the final decision on the TRTP by the Forest Service.

DATES: The SDEIS is expected to be published May 1, 2010. A 45-day 
comment period will occur following publication of an NOA in the 
Federal Register. Based on this schedule, comments on the information 
contained in the SDEIS would need to be received by June 15, 2010. The 
Final EIS is anticipated in September 2010. Project scoping was held in 
2007. No additional scoping effort will occur as part of the SDEIS 
preparation process.

ADDRESSES: To request a copy of the SDEIS or Final ETS and/or to send 
written comments, please write to the Angeles National Forest, c/o 
Aspen Environmental Group, 30423 Canwood Street, Suite 215, Agoura 
Hills, CA 91301. Alternately, electronic comments may be sent to 
[email protected]. Electronic comments must be submitted as part of the 
actual e-mail message, or as an attachment in plain text (.txt), 
Microsoft Word (.doc), rich text format (.rtf), or portable document 
format (.pdf). Information about the Supplemental EIS and the 
environmental review process will be posted on the Internet at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/angeles/projects/. This site will be used to post 
links to all public documents during the Supplemental EIS process.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Justin Seastrand, Special Uses 
Coordinator, Forest Service, Angeles National Forest, 701 N. Santa 
Anita Ave., Arcadia, CA 91006, phone: (626) 574-5278. For additional 
information related to the project on non-NFS lands, contact John 
Boccio, California Public Utilities Commission (CNJC), .505 Van Ness 
Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102; phone: (415) 703-2641. Project 
information can also be requested by leaving a voice message or sending 
a fax to the Project Information Hotline at (888) 331-9897.
    Responsible Official: The responsible official will be Jody Noiron, 
Forest Supervisor, Angeles National Forest, 701 North Santa Anita 
Avenue, Arcadia, CA, 91006.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Lead and Cooperating Agencies. The USDA 
Forest Service is the lead agency, in accordance with 40 CFR 1501.5(b), 
and is responsible for the preparation of the SDEIS and Final EIS. The 
Army Corps of Engineers is a cooperating agency.
    Comment. A SDETS will be prepared and available for public comment. 
The comment period on the SDEIS will be 45 days from the date the 
Environmental Protection Agency publishes the Notice of Availability 
(NOA) in the Federal Register. To assist the Forest Service in 
identifying and considering issues and concerns on the analysis of the 
changed environmental conditions due to the Station Fire and project 
changes since the publication of the Draft EIS, comments on the SDEIS 
should be as specific as possible. It is also helpful if comments refer 
to specific pages or chapters of the SDEIS.
    Comments may also address the adequacy of the SDEIS. Comments 
received on the SDEIS, including names and addresses of those who 
comment, will be considered part of the public record and will be 
available for public inspection. Comments submitted anonymously will be 
accepted and considered; however, those who submit anonymous comments 
will not have standing to appeal the subsequent decision under 36 CFR 
parts 215 and 217. Additionally, pursuant to 7 CFR 1.27(d), any person 
may request the agency to withhold a submission from the public record 
by showing how the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) permits such 
confidentiality. Persons requesting such confidentiality should be 
aware that, under FOIA, confidentiality may be granted in only very 
limited circumstances, such as to protect trade secrets. The Forest 
Service will inform the requester of the agency's decision regarding 
the request for confidentiality, and where the request is denied, the 
agency will return the submission and notify the requester that

[[Page 6169]]

the comments may be resubmitted with or without name and address within 
a specified number of days.
    The Forest Service believes, at this early stage, it is important 
to give reviewers notice of several court rulings related to public 
participation in the environmental review process. First, reviewers of 
a draft EIS must structure their participation in the environmental 
review of the proposal so that it is meaningful and alerts an agency to 
the reviewer's position and contentions [Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power 
Corp. v. NRDC, 435 U.S. 519, 553 (1978)1. Also, environmental 
objections that could be raised at the draft EIS stage but that are not 
raised until after completion of the final EIS may be waived or 
dismissed by the courts [City of Angoon v. Harris, 490 F. Supp. 1334, 
1338 (E.D. Wis. 1980)]. Because of these court rulings, it is very 
important that those interested in this process participate by the 
close of the 45-day comment period so that substantive comments and 
objections are made available to the Forest Service at a time when it 
can meaningfully consider them and respond to them in the final EIS.
    Reviewers may wish to refer to the Council on Environmental Quality 
Regulations for implementing the procedural provisions of the National 
Environmental Policy Act at 40 CFR 1503.3 in addressing these points.
    In the final EIS, the Forest Service is required to respond to 
substantive comments received during the comment period for the draft 
and supplemental draft EIS's. The Forest Service is the lead agency and 
the responsible official is the Forest Supervisor, Angeles National 
Forest. The responsible official will decide whether and how to issue 
Special Use authorizations for the proposed project or alternatives. 
The responsible official will also decide how to mitigate impacts of 
these actions and will determine when and how monitoring of effects 
will take place.
    The Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project decision and the 
reasons for the decision will be documented in the record of decision. 
That decision will he subject to Forest Service Appeal Regulations (35 
CFR part 215).

    Dated: January 27, 2010.
Marty Dumpis,
Deputy Forest Supervisor.
[FR Doc. 2010-2263 Filed 2-5-10; 8:45 am]
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