[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 230 (Wednesday, December 1, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 74708-74710]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-30162]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. CP10-22-000]


Magnum Gas Storage, LLC; Magnum Solutions, LLC; Notice of 
Availability of the Environmental Assessment for the Proposed Magnum 
Storage Project and Proposed Pony Express Resource Management Plan 
Amendment for the Bureau of Land Management

November 23, 2010.
    The staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC or 
Commission) has prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for the 
natural gas storage and pipeline facilities proposed by Magnum Gas 
Storage, LLC and Magnum Solutions, LLC (Magnum) in the above-referenced 
docket.
    The EA was prepared to satisfy the requirements of the National 
Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The FERC staff concludes that 
approval of the proposed project, with appropriate mitigating measures, 
would not constitute a major Federal action significantly affecting the 
quality of the human environment.
    The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the State of Utah, Public 
Lands Policy Coordination Office, and Millard County, Utah participated 
as cooperating agencies in the preparation of the EA. Cooperating 
agencies have jurisdiction by law or special expertise with respect to 
resources potentially affected by the proposal and participate in the 
NEPA analysis. The BLM intends to adopt and use the EA to consider the 
issuance of right-of-way grants on federally administered lands as well 
as to amend the BLM's Salt Lake Field Office Pony Express Resource 
Management Plan (RMP) to establish a utility corridor. As such, the EA 
addresses the BLM's Proposed Pony Express Resource Management Plan 
Amendment (PRMPA). While the conclusions and recommendations presented 
in the EA were developed with input from the cooperating agencies, the 
BLM will present its own conclusions and recommendations in its 
respective Record of Decision for the project.
    The EA/PRMPA addresses the potential environmental effects of the 
construction and operation of the following project facilities:
     Four natural gas storage caverns;
     Five water supply wells;
     Four cavern solution mining and natural gas injection/
withdrawal wells;
     Numerous project-related facilities including pumping and 
compressor stations, gas handling equipment, associated valves and 
piping, electric generators, and other support buildings/systems;
     Three brine evaporation ponds;
     Several groundwater monitoring wells and other groundwater 
monitoring equipment; and
     A 61.6-mile-long, 36-inch-diameter natural gas 
transmission pipeline and associated facilities.

    The EA/PRMPA has been placed in the public files of the FERC and is 
available for public viewing on the FERC's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov using the eLibrary link. A limited number of copies of the 
EA are available for distribution and public inspection at: Federal 
Energy Regulatory Commission, Public Reference Room, 888 First Street, 
NE., Room 2A, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8371.

    Copies of the EA/PRMPA have been mailed to Federal, State, and 
local government representatives and agencies; elected officials; 
environmental and public interest groups; Native American tribes; 
potentially affected landowners and other interested individuals and 
groups; newspapers and libraries in the project area; and parties to 
this proceeding.
    Any person wishing to comment on the EA/PRMPA may do so. Your 
comments should focus on the potential environmental effects, 
reasonable alternatives, and measures to avoid or lessen environmental 
impacts. The more specific your comments, the more useful they will be. 
To ensure that your comments are properly recorded and considered prior 
to a Commission decision on the proposal, it is important that we 
receive your comments in Washington, DC on or before December 23, 2010. 
Comments specific to the PRMPA should be addressed to the BLM (see 
specific procedures in Attachment 1).
    For your convenience, there are three methods you can use to submit 
your comments to the Commission. In all instances please reference the 
project docket number (CP10-22-000) with your submission. The 
Commission encourages electronic filing of comments and has dedicated 
eFiling expert staff available to assist you at 202-502-8258 or 
[email protected].

[[Page 74709]]

    (1) You may file your comments electronically by using the eComment 
feature, which is located on the Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov under the link to Documents and Filings. An eComment is an 
easy method for interested persons to submit brief, text-only comments 
on a project;
    (2) You may file your comments electronically by using the eFiling 
feature, which is located on the Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov under the link to Documents and Filings. With eFiling you 
can provide comments in a variety of formats by attaching them as a 
file with your submission. New eFiling users must first create an 
account by clicking on ``eRegister.'' You will be asked to select the 
type of filing you are making. A comment on a particular project is 
considered a ``Comment on a Filing''; or
    (3) You may file a paper copy of your comments at the following 
address: Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE., Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426.
    Although your comments will be considered by the Commission, simply 
filing comments will not serve to make the commentor a party to the 
proceeding. Any person seeking to become a party to the proceeding must 
file a motion to intervene pursuant to Rule 214 of the Commission's 
Rules of Practice and Procedures (18 CFR 385.214).\1\ Only intervenors 
have the right to seek rehearing of the Commission's decision.
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    \1\ Interventions may also be filed electronically via the 
Internet in lieu of paper. See the previous discussion on filing 
comments electronically.
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    Affected landowners and parties with environmental concerns may be 
granted intervenor status upon showing good cause by stating that they 
have a clear and direct interest in this proceeding which would not be 
adequately represented by any other parties. You do not need intervenor 
status to have your comments considered.
    Additional information about the project is available from the 
Commission's Office of External Affairs, at (866) 208-FERC or on the 
FERC Web site (http://www.ferc.gov) using the eLibrary link. Click on 
the eLibrary link, click on ``General Search'' and enter the docket 
number excluding the last three digits in the Docket Number field 
(i.e., CP10-22-000). Be sure you have selected an appropriate date 
range. For assistance, please contact FERC Online Support at 
[email protected] or toll free at (866) 208-3676, or for TTY, 
contact (202) 502-8659. The eLibrary link also provides access to the 
texts of formal documents issued by the Commission, such as orders, 
notices, and rulemakings.
    In addition, the Commission offers a free service called 
eSubscription which allows you to keep track of all formal issuances 
and submittals in specific dockets. This can reduce the amount of time 
you spend researching proceedings by automatically providing you with 
notification of these filings, document summaries, and direct links to 
the documents. Go to http://www.ferc.gov/esubscribenow.htm.
    The BLM will issue a separate Decision Record (DR) for this 
project. As part of the BLM decision-making process, certain additional 
steps must be completed. Details on how to participate in that process 
are provided below.

BLM Proposed Plan Amendment

    The EA/PRMPA contains a Proposed Amendment of the Pony Express 
Resource Management Plan. The amendment would create a 250-foot-wide 
utility corridor. Pursuant to BLM's planning regulations at 43 CFR 
1610.5-2, any person who participated in the planning process for this 
Proposed Plan Amendment and has an interest which may be adversely 
affected by the planning decision may protest approval of the planning 
decision within 30 days from the date this Notice of Availability for 
the EA/PRMPA is published in the Federal Register. For further 
information on filing a protest of the BLM planning decision, please 
see the accompanying protest regulations in the pages that follow 
(labeled as Attachment 1). The regulations specify the 
required elements of your protest. Take care to document all relevant 
facts. As much as possible, reference or cite the planning documents or 
available planning records (e.g., meeting minutes or summaries, 
correspondence, etc.). If your protest does not include all of the 
elements outlined in 43 CFR 1610.5-2, the BLM will not respond to your 
protest.
    E-mailed and faxed protests will not be accepted as valid protests 
unless the protesting party also provides the original letter by either 
regular or overnight mail postmarked by the close of the BLM's protest 
period. Under these conditions, the BLM will consider the emailed or 
faxed protest as an advance copy and will afford it full consideration. 
If you wish to provide the BLM with such advance notification, please 
direct faxed protests to the attention of Brenda Hudgens-Williams, BLM 
protest coordinator, at (202) 912-7212, and e-mailed protests to: 
[email protected].
    All protests, including the follow-up letter to emails or faxes, 
must be in writing and mailed to one of the following addresses:

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            Regular mail                        Overnight mail
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Director (210)                       Director (210)
Attention: Brenda Williams           Attention: Brenda Williams
P.O. Box 66538                       1620 L Street, NW., Suite 1075
Washington, DC 20035                 Washington, DC 20036
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    Before including your address, phone number, e-mail address, or 
other personal identifying information in your protest, be advised that 
your entire protest--including your personal identifying information--
may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask us in 
your protest to withhold from public review your personal identifying 
information, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to do so.
    The BLM Director will make every attempt to promptly render a 
decision on each protest. The decision will be in writing and will be 
sent to the protesting party by certified mail, return receipt 
requested. The decision of the BLM Director shall be the final decision 
of the Department of the Interior. Responses to protest issues will be 
compiled and formalized in a Director's Protest Decision Report made 
available following issuance of the decisions. Upon resolution of all 
land use plan amendment protests, the BLM will issue an Approved RMP 
Amendment and DR.

[[Page 74710]]

    Unlike land use planning decisions, implementation decisions 
included in this EA/PRMPA are not subject to protest under the BLM 
planning regulations, but are subject to an administrative review 
process, through appeals to the Office of Hearings and Appeals, 
Interior Board of Land Appeals pursuant to 43 CFR, part 4, subpart E. 
Implementation decisions generally constitute the BLM's final approval 
allowing on-the-ground actions to proceed. Where implementation 
decisions are made as part of the land use planning process, they are 
still subject to the appeals process or other administrative review as 
prescribed by specific resource program regulations once the BLM 
resolves the protests to land use planning decisions and issues an 
Approved RMP Amendment and DR. The BLM's Approved RMP Amendment and DR 
will therefore identify the implementation decisions made in the plan 
that may be appealed to the Office of Hearing and Appeals.

Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2010-30162 Filed 11-30-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P