[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 205 (Monday, October 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65503-65505]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26865]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation


Odessa Subarea Special Study; Adams, Franklin, Grant, and Lincoln 
Counties, Washington INT-DES 10-54

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability and notice of public hearing of Draft 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

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SUMMARY: Pursuant to section 102(2)(C) of the National Environmental 
Policy Act (NEPA), the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is notifying 
the public that Reclamation and the State of Washington have prepared a 
Draft EIS for the Odessa Subarea Special Study. The Washington 
Department of Ecology (Ecology) is a joint lead with Reclamation in the 
preparation of this Draft EIS, which will also be used to comply with 
requirements of the Washington State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA).
    The purpose of Reclamation's Odessa Subarea Special Study is to 
evaluate alternatives to replace groundwater supply with surface water 
to irrigate existing, groundwater-irrigated acres in the Odessa Ground 
Water Management Subarea. Measurements of groundwater levels in wells 
have shown a substantial decline in much of the Odessa Subarea since 
the 1980s, which are the earliest available measurements. This has 
prompted public concern about the declining aquifers and associated 
economic and other effects, which resulted in a directive by the U.S. 
Congress and the Washington State legislature to investigate the 
problem.

DATES: Written or e-mailed comments on the Draft EIS will be accepted

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through December 31, 2010. Public hearings will be held in November 
2010. See the Supplementary Information section for dates and locations 
of these hearings.

ADDRESSES: Written comments on the Draft EIS may be submitted to Bureau 
of Reclamation, Columbia-Cascades Area Office, Attention: Charles 
Carnohan, Activity Manager, 1917 Marsh Road, Yakima, Washington 98901-
2058. Comments may also be submitted electronically to [email protected].

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Charles Carnohan, Activity Manager, 
Telephone (509) 575-5848 x370. Information on this project can also be 
found at http://www.usbr.gov/pn/programs/ucao_misc/odessa/index.html.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Dates of Public Hearings

     November 17, 2010, 3 p.m.-7 p.m., Coulee Dam, WA.
     November 18, 2010, 3 p.m.-7 p.m., Moses Lake, WA.

Locations of Public Hearings

     Town of Coulee Dam Town Hall, 300 Lincoln Avenue, Coulee 
Dam, WA 99116.
     Grant County Advanced Technologies Center (ATEC) Building 
1800, Big Bend Community College, 7611 Bolling Street NE., Moses Lake, 
WA 98837.
    Meeting facilities are accessible to people with disabilities. 
People needing special assistance to attend and/or participate should 
contact Charles Carnahan at (509) 575-5848, extension 370, or mail him 
at the address in the Addresses section, as soon as possible. To allow 
sufficient time to process special requests, please call no later than 
one week before the public meeting of interest.
    TTY users may dial 711 to obtain a toll free TTY relay. Spanish 
language interpretation requests should be made to Enedina Galvez at 
(509) 575-5848. Si necesita interpretacion para Espanol, por favor 
llame Enedina Galvez a (509) 575-5848.

Hearing Process Information

    Requests to make oral comments at the public hearing may be made at 
the hearing. In order to ensure that all those interested in providing 
oral comments have an opportunity to do so, speakers will be limited to 
5 minutes. Comments will be recorded by a court reporter. Speakers will 
be called in the order indicated on the sign-in list for speaking. 
Speakers not present when called will be recalled at the end of the 
scheduled speakers. Speakers may provide written versions of their oral 
comments, or other additional written comments, for the hearing record. 
Longer comments should be summarized at the public hearing and 
submitted in writing either at the public hearing or identified as 
hearing comments and mailed within 7 days of the hearing date to Mr. 
Charles Carnohan as indicated under the ADDRESSES section.

Background Information

    The Columbia Basin Project (CBP) is a multipurpose water 
development project in the central part of the state of Washington. The 
Grand Coulee Dam Project was authorized for construction by the Act of 
August 30, 1935, and reauthorized and renamed in the CBP Act of March 
10, 1943. Congress authorized the CBP to irrigate a total of 1,029,000 
acres; about 671,000 acres are currently irrigated.
    Section 9(a) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 gave authority 
to the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to approve a finding of 
feasibility and thereby authorize construction of a project upon 
submitting a report to the President and the Congress. The Secretary 
approved a plan of development for the CBP, known as House Document No. 
172 in 1945. House Document No. 172 anticipated that development of the 
CBP would occur in phases over a 70-year period. Reclamation is 
authorized to implement additional development phases as long as the 
Secretary finds it to be economically justified and financially 
feasible. The Odessa Subarea Special Study is conducted under the 
authority of the CBP Act of 1943, as amended, and the Reclamation Act 
of 1939.
    In response to the public's concern about the declining aquifer and 
associated economic and other effects, Congress has funded Reclamation 
to investigate this problem. Ecology has partnered with Reclamation by 
providing funding and collaborating on various technical studies.
    The State, Reclamation, and irrigation districts signed the 
Columbia River Initiative Memorandum of Understanding (CRI MOU) in 
December 2004, to promote a cooperative process for implementing 
activities to improve Columbia River water management and water 
management within the CBP. The Odessa Subarea Special Study implements 
Section 15 of the CRI MOU, which states in part that, ``The parties 
will cooperate to explore opportunities for delivery of water to 
additional existing agricultural lands within the Odessa Subarea.'' In 
February 2006, the State legislature passed the Columbia River Water 
Resource Management Act (HB 2860) that directs Ecology to aggressively 
pursue development of water benefiting both instream and out-of-stream 
uses through storage, conservation, and voluntary regional water 
management agreements. Reclamation's Odessa Subarea Special Study is 
one of several activities identified in the legislation.
    Reclamation has developed alternatives to replace the current and 
increasingly unreliable groundwater supplies used for irrigation with a 
surface supply as part of continued phased development of the CBP. 
Reclamation can only deliver water to lands authorized to receive CBP 
water. An estimated 170,000 acres within the Odessa Subarea are now 
being irrigated with groundwater with an estimated 140,000 of these 
acres eligible to receive CBP surface water.
    Reclamation and Ecology are studying the potential to replace 
groundwater currently used for irrigation in the Odessa Subarea Special 
Study Area (Study Area) with CBP surface water. The alternatives being 
considered include the No Action Alternative as required by NEPA and 
SEPA, and eight action alternatives that address the Purpose and Need. 
The eight action alternatives fall within two categories:
    Partial Replacement: This group of delivery alternatives focuses on 
enlarging the existing East Low Canal and providing CBP surface water 
to approximately 58,000 acres in the Study Area currently irrigated 
with groundwater. The acreage served would be south of I-90. No surface 
water replacement would be provided to most of the remaining 
groundwater-irrigated acres in the Study Area (north of I-90).
    Full Replacement: This group of delivery alternatives would provide 
CBP surface water to most groundwater-irrigated acreage in the Study 
Area (102,614 acres), both north and south of I-90. Lands south of I-90 
would be served by enlarging the East Low Canal. Lands north of I-90 
would be served by constructing an East High Canal system.
    The eight action alternatives consist of four partial replacement 
alternatives and four full replacement alternatives. The four 
alternatives within each of the two replacement alternative categories 
consist of variations in the water supply options that would be used. 
Four supply options are being considered that would use storage from 
Banks Lake, Lake Roosevelt, or a new Rocky Coulee Reservoir, either 
individually or in combination, as follows: Option A-- Banks Lake, 
would use storage in and additional drawdowns from Banks Lake,

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exclusively; Option B--Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt, would use 
existing storage in Banks Lake and Lake Roosevelt, resulting in 
drawdowns from both reservoirs; Option C--Banks Lake and Rocky Coulee 
Reservoir, would use existing storage in Banks Lake, plus a new Rocky 
Coulee Reservoir; and Option D--Banks Lake, Lake Roosevelt, and Rocky 
Coulee Reservoir, would use a combination of all three storage 
facilities. Alternatives would involve various combinations and 
configurations of these water conveyance and water supply components.
    The Draft EIS is available for public inspection at the following 
locations:
     Bureau of Reclamation, Columbia-Cascades Area Office, 1917 
Marsh Road, Yakima, WA 98901-2058; telephone: (509) 575-5848.
     Bureau of Reclamation, Pacific Northwest Regional Office, 
1150 North Curtis Road, Suite 100, Boise, ID 83706-1234; telephone: 
(208) 378-5012.

Libraries

     Ritzville Public Library, 302 West Main, Ritzville, WA 
99169.
     Basin City Branch, Mid-Columbia Library, Basin City, WA 
99343.
     Benton-Franklin County Regional Law Library, Columbia 
Basin College, L Building, 2600 North 10th Avenue, Pasco, WA 99301.
     Big Bend Community College Library, Building 1800, 7611 
Bolling Street, NE, Moses Lake, WA 98837.
     Columbia Basin College Library, 2600 North 20th Avenue, 
Pasco, WA 99301.
     Connell Branch, Mid-Columbia Library, 118 North Columbia 
Avenue, Connell, WA 99362.
     Coulee City Public Library, 405 West Main Street, Coulee 
City, WA 99115.
     Ephrata City Library, 45 Alder Street Northwest, Ephrata, 
WA 98823-2420.
     Grant County Law Library, 35 C Street, NW, Ephrata, WA 
98823.
     Kahlotus Branch, Mid-Columbia Library, East 225 Weston, 
Kahlotus, WA 99335.
     Moses Lake Community Library, 418 East 5th Avenue, Moses 
Lake, WA 98837-1797.
     Odessa Public Library, 21 East 1st Avenue, Odessa, WA 
99159.
     Othello Branch, Mid-Columbia Library, 101 East Main, 
Othello, WA 99344.
     Pasco Branch, Mid-Colombia Library, 1320 West Hopkins, 
Pasco, WA 99301.
     Quincy Public Library, 108 B Street Southwest, Quincy, WA 
98848.
     North Central Regional Library, Royal City Library, 136 
Camelia Street, Royal City, WA 99357.
     Seattle Public Library, Central Library, 1000 Fourth 
Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104.
     Sprague Public Library, 119 West Second Street, Sprague, 
WA 99032.
     North Central Regional Library, Warden Library, 305 South 
Main Street, Warden, WA 98857.
     Washington State Library, 6880 Capitol Boulevard South, 
Olympia, WA 98504.

Public Disclosure Statement

    If you wish to comment, you may mail or e-mail your comments as 
indicated under the ADDRESSES section. Before including your name, 
address, phone number, e-mail address, or other personal identifying 
information in your comment, you should be aware that your entire 
comment (including your personal identifying information) may be made 
publicly available at any time. While you can request in your comment 
for us to withhold your personal identifying information from public 
review, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.

Timothy L. Personius,
Acting Regional Director, Pacific Northwest Region.
[FR Doc. 2010-26865 Filed 10-22-10; 8:45 am]
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