[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 98 (Friday, May 20, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29261-29263]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-12416]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for 
the Proposed Campo Wind Energy Project, San Diego 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) as lead agency, with the Campo Band of

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Mission Indians (Tribe) as a cooperating agency, intends to gather 
information necessary for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) for the proposed Campo Shu'luuk Wind Project, located on the 
Campo Indian Reservation in southeastern San Diego County, 
approximately 60 miles east of San Diego, California. Construction of 
the Shu'luuk Wind Project within the Campo Reservation is subject to 
BIA approval of a lease and sublease, which, as proposed, is a major 
Federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(NEPA), as amended. A brief description of the proposed action and 
areas of environmental concern are provided below in the SUPPLEMENTARY 
INFORMATION section. This notice also announces a public scoping 
meeting to identify potential issues, concerns and alternatives to be 
considered in the EIS. The scoping process will include notice to the 
public and Federal, State, local, and Tribal agencies of the proposed 
action.

DATES: Written comments on the scope and implementation of this 
proposal must arrive by July 5, 2011. A public scoping meeting will be 
held June 21, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., or until the last public 
comment is received. A second public scoping meeting will be held on 
June 22, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. or until the last public comment 
is received.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand-carry written comments to Robert Eben, 
Superintendent, Southern California Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs, 
1451 Research Park Drive, Riverside, California 92507. Please include 
your name, caption, return address and ``EIS Scoping Comments, Shu'luuk 
Wind Project, San Diego County, California,'' on the first page of your 
written comments. The June 21 meeting will be held at the Mountain 
Empire High School, 3305 Buckman Springs Road, Pine Valley, California. 
The June 22 meeting will be located at the Campo Indian Reservation 
Tribal Hall, 36190 Church Road, Campo, California.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lenore Lamb, (951) 276-6624, Ext 254.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BIA approval is required for a lease and 
sublease to build and operate a commercial wind power generation 
facility capable of generating up to 250 megawatts (MW) of electricity. 
The project is planned to be constructed in phases. The initial phase 
would generate up to 160 MW consisting of up to 80 turbines. The 
project study area, for all phases, covers approximately 4660 acres on 
the Campo Indian Reservation. The total area that would be disturbed by 
the project would be substantially less. The turbines proposed for the 
project would have a tower hub height of up to 328 feet and a rotor 
diameter up to approximately 368 feet. Each turbine would be set on a 
concrete foundation. Turbines would be connected by underground 
electrical cable to a project substation. The substation would be sited 
on a 2-acre area and would consist of a graveled, fenced area 
containing transformer and switching equipment and an area for vehicle 
parking. Up to 5 miles of new 3-phase 138 kV overhead interconnection 
transmission circuit would be constructed within the Campo Indian 
Reservation from the project collector substation to a San Diego Gas & 
Electric (SDG&E) switchyard. The SDG&E switchyard and related 
transmission line upgrades will be subject to approval by the 
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the BIA. Other 
required facilities, all located within the Campo Indian Reservation, 
would include: Up to three permanent meteorological towers; temporary 
material laydown areas during construction; temporary office areas; an 
operations and maintenance building; approximately 25 miles of new 
access roads; and a temporary concrete batch plant. This batch plant 
would be centrally located within the existing Campo Materials facility 
off of Church Road. The wind power generation facility would operate 
year-round for a minimum of 25 years.
    The purpose and need for the project are to: (1) Improve the 
economic conditions of the Campo Band through the lease revenue and job 
creation from development of wind power generation on the Campo 
Reservation utilizing the renewable resource (wind) that is found in 
abundance on the Campo Reservation; (2) make use of the Campo 
Reservation's wind energy resources in an environmentally sound manner 
to meet existing and future electricity demands to power approximately 
40,000 homes in the Southern California region; (3) provide for 
renewable energy sources as encouraged by the Federal Energy Policy Act 
of 2005, California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), and the 
State's renewable portfolio standard that mandates utilities to 
increase procurement from eligible renewable energy resources; and (4) 
reduce carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be emitted from 
fossil fuel powered electric generation sources by as much as 250,000 
tons per year.
    The EIS will analyze the potential environmental impacts of the 
construction and operation of a proposed wind generation facility, 
including access roads, a collector substation, as well as a switchyard 
and transmission facilities that have previously been analyzed at the 
programmatic level in the Draft Environmental Impact Report/
Environmental Impact Statement for the East County Substation, Tule 
Wind, and Energia Sierra Juarez Gen-Tie Project (DOI Control No. DES 
10-62). The EIS will be prepared in accordance with NEPA (42 U.S.C. 
4321); the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR 
parts 1500-1508); Department of the Interior regulations (43 CFR part 
46); and the BIA NEPA Handbook (59 IAM 3-H). A reasonable range of 
alternatives to the proposed action including a no-action alternative, 
will be analyzed in the EIS. The range of issues and alternatives may 
be expanded based on comments and information received during the 
scoping process. This notice initiates the public scoping process to 
identify alternatives and relevant issues associated with the proposed 
project.
    Areas of environmental concern to be addressed in the EIS include 
land use, wildlife (including birds and bats); vegetation (including 
noxious and invasive weeds); threatened, endangered, and sensitive 
plants and animals (including the Quino checkerspot butterfly); visual 
resources; cultural resources; water quality; air quality (including 
climate change); noise; emergency services (including fire management 
and suppression); public health/environmental hazards; traffic and 
transportation; hazardous waste; environmental justice and 
socioeconomics.

Public Comment Availability

    Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be 
available for public review at the BIA address shown in the ADDRESSES 
section, during business hours, 8 a.m. to 4:30 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 the 
law. We will not, however, consider anonymous comments. All submissions 
from 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.

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Authority

    This notice is published in accordance with sections 1501.7, 1506.6 
and 1508.22 of the Council of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR 
parts 1500 through 1508) and Sec. 46.305 of the Department of Interior 
Regulations (43 CFR part 46), implementing the procedural requirements 
of the NEPA of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), and is in the 
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian 
Affairs by 209 DM 8.

    Dated: May 3, 2011.
Donald Laverdure,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2011-12416 Filed 5-19-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-W7-P