[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 129 (Wednesday, July 6, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 39435-39436]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-16926]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Reclamation
National Park Service
Notice of Intent To Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact
Statement and Conduct Public Scoping on the Adoption of a Long-Term
Experimental and Management Plan for the Operation of Glen Canyon Dam
AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation and National Park Service, Interior.
ACTION: Notice of intent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: On December 10, 2009, Secretary of the Interior (Secretary)
Ken Salazar announced that the development of a Long-Term Experimental
and Management Plan (LTEMP) for Glen Canyon Dam was needed. The
Secretary emphasized the inclusion of stakeholders, particularly those
in the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program (GCDAMP), in the
development of the LTEMP. The Department of the Interior (Department),
through the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) and the National Park
Service (NPS), will prepare a draft environmental impact statement
(EIS) and conduct public scoping for the adoption of a LTEMP for the
operation of Glen Canyon Dam. The Department's decision to develop the
LTEMP is a component of its efforts to continue to comply with the
ongoing requirements and obligations established by the Grand Canyon
Protection Act of 1992 (Pub. L. 102-575) (GCPA). Reclamation and the
NPS will co-lead this effort because Reclamation has primary
responsibility for operation of Glen Canyon Dam and the NPS has primary
responsibility for Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Beverley Heffernan, telephone (801)
524-3712; facsimile (801) 524-3826; e-mail [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The GCDAMP was established by, and has been
implemented pursuant to the Secretary's 1996 Record of Decision on the
Operation of Glen Canyon Dam (ROD), in order to comply with monitoring
and consultation requirements of the GCPA. The GCDAMP includes a
Federal advisory committee known as the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive
Management Work Group (AMWG), a technical work group, a scientific
monitoring and research center administered by the U.S. Geological
Survey (USGS), and independent scientific review panels. The AMWG makes
recommendations to the Secretary concerning Glen Canyon Dam operations
and other management actions to protect resources downstream of Glen
Canyon Dam consistent with the GCPA and other applicable provisions of
Federal law.
The purpose of the proposed LTEMP is to utilize current, and
develop additional scientific information, to better inform
Departmental decisions and to operate the dam in such a manner as to
improve and protect important downstream resources while maintaining
compliance with relevant laws including the GCPA, the Law of the River,
and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The National Environmental Policy
Act (NEPA) process will document and evaluate impacts of the
alternatives described in the EIS. The LTEMP is intended to develop and
implement a structured, long-term experimental and management plan, to
determine the need for potential future modifications to Glen Canyon
Dam operations, and to determine whether to establish an ESA Recovery
Implementation Program for endangered fish species below Glen Canyon
Dam.
A primary function of the LTEMP will be to identify adaptive
management experiments that have been successfully completed under the
GCDAMP and to evaluate potential future experiments that may further
inform management decisions. Revised dam operations and other actions
under the jurisdiction of the Secretary will be considered for
alternatives in the EIS, in keeping with the scope of the GCPA. The
LTEMP will be the first EIS completed on the operations of Glen Canyon
Dam since the 1995 EIS, which was intended to allow the Secretary to
``balance and meet statutory responsibilities for protecting downstream
resources for future generations and producing hydropower, and to
protect affected Native American interests.'' Given that it has been 15
years since completion of the 1996 ROD on the operation of Glen Canyon
Dam, the Department will study new information developed through the
GCDAMP, including information on climate change, so as to more fully
inform future decisions regarding the operation of Glen Canyon Dam and
other management and experimental actions.
As stated above, the LTEMP will build on more than a decade of
scientific experimentation and monitoring undertaken as part of the
GCDAMP. Accordingly, Reclamation and the NPS intend, where appropriate,
to incorporate by reference, or tier from, earlier NEPA compliance
documents prepared as part of the Department's Glen Canyon Dam adaptive
management efforts, see 40 CFR 1500.4(i), 1502.20, and 1508.20(b), such
as the Environmental Assessment for an Experimental Protocol for High-
Flow Releases from Glen Canyon Dam and the Environmental Assessment for
Non-Native Fish Control in the Colorado River Downstream from Glen
Canyon Dam that are currently in preparation.
Environmental documentation and updated information developed for
the Long-Term Experimental Plan (LTEP) EIS (that was partially
developed during 2006-2007) will be utilized. In a Federal Register
notice published on February 12, 2008 (73 FR 8062), the LTEP EIS was
put on hold until completion of environmental compliance on a five-year
plan of experimental flows (2008-2012), including a high-flow test
completed in March 2008 and yearly fall steady flows to be conducted in
September and October of each year from 2008-2012.
[[Page 39436]]
This Federal Register notice provides notice that the LTEP EIS,
initiated in a Federal Register notice dated November 6, 2006 (71 FR
64982), will be superseded by the LTEMP EIS. In addition, this notice
provides the public with initial information regarding the anticipated
development and purpose of the LTEMP, and notice of the Department's
commitment to analyze the LTEMP in an EIS pursuant to NEPA.
Public scoping meetings will be held to solicit comments on the
scope of the LTEMP and the issues and alternatives that should be
analyzed. These meetings will serve to expand upon the input received
from meetings and recommendations of the AMWG. Additional information
regarding the dates and times for the upcoming meetings and
identification of relevant comment periods will be provided in a future
Federal Register notice, as well as through other methods of public
involvement as the NEPA process is undertaken and the LTEMP is
developed and prepared.
Background
Glen Canyon Dam was authorized by the Colorado River Storage
Project Act of 1956 and completed by Reclamation in 1963. Below Glen
Canyon Dam, the Colorado River flows for 15 miles through the Glen
Canyon National Recreation Area which is managed by the NPS. Fifteen
miles below Glen Canyon Dam, Lees Ferry, Arizona, marks the beginning
of Marble Canyon and the northern boundary of Grand Canyon National
Park.
The major function of Glen Canyon Dam is water conservation and
storage. The dam is specifically managed to regulate releases of water
from the Upper Colorado River Basin to the Lower Colorado River Basin
to satisfy provisions of the 1922 Colorado River Compact and subsequent
water delivery commitments, and thereby allow states within the Upper
Basin to deplete water from the watershed upstream of Glen Canyon Dam
and utilize their apportionments of Colorado River water.
Another function of Glen Canyon Dam is to generate hydroelectric
power. Between the dam's completion in 1963 and 1990, the dam's daily
operations were primarily to maximize generation of hydroelectric
power. Over time, concerns arose with respect to the operation of Glen
Canyon Dam, including effects on the downstream riparian ecosystem and
on species listed pursuant to the ESA. In 1992, Congress passed and the
President signed into law the GCPA which addresses potential impacts of
dam operations on downstream resources in Glen Canyon National
Recreation Area and Grand Canyon National Park.
The GCPA required the Secretary to complete an EIS evaluating
alternative operating criteria that would determine how Glen Canyon Dam
would be operated ``to protect, mitigate adverse impacts to, and
improve the values for which Grand Canyon National Park and Glen Canyon
National Recreation Area were established.'' The final EIS was
completed in March 1995. Consistent with section 1802 of the GCPA, the
Preferred Alternative (Modified Low Fluctuating Flow Alternative) was
selected as the best means to operate Glen Canyon Dam in a ROD issued
on October 9, 1996. In 1997 the Secretary adopted operating criteria
for Glen Canyon Dam (62 FR 9447) as required by Section 1804(c) of the
GCPA.
Additionally, the GCPA required the Secretary to undertake research
and monitoring to determine if revised dam operations were achieving
the resource protection objectives of the final EIS and ROD. These
provisions of the GCPA were incorporated into the 1996 ROD and led to
the establishment of the GCDAMP, administered by Reclamation, and of
the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center within the USGS.
Purpose and Need for Action
The purpose of the proposed action is to fully evaluate dam
operations and identify management actions and experimental options
that will provide a framework for adaptively managing Glen Canyon Dam
over the next 15 to 20 years consistent with the GCPA and other
provisions of applicable Federal law. The proposed action will help
determine specific alternatives that could be implemented to meet the
GCPA's requirements and to minimize--consistent with law--adverse
impacts on the downstream natural, recreational, and cultural resources
in the two park units, including resources of importance to American
Indian Tribes. The need for the proposed action stems from the need to
utilize scientific information developed over the past 15 years to
better inform Departmental decisions on dam operations and other
management and experimental actions so that the Secretary may continue
to meet statutory responsibilities for protecting downstream resources
for future generations, conserving ESA listed species, and protecting
Native American interests, while meeting water delivery obligations and
for the generation of hydroelectric power.
Proposed Federal Action
The proposed Federal action is to (a) Develop and implement a
structured, long-term experimental and management plan for the
operation of Glen Canyon Dam and (b) to determine whether to establish
a Recovery Implementation Program for endangered fish species below
Glen Canyon Dam.
Public Disclosure
Before including a name, address, telephone number, e-mail address,
or other personal identifying information in the comment, please be
advised that the entire comment--including personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While a
commenter may request that Reclamation and the NPS withhold personal
identifying information from public review, Reclamation and the NPS
cannot guarantee that the Department will be able to do so.
Dated: June 23, 2011.
Anne J. Castle,
Assistant Secretary--Water and Science.
Rachel Jacobson,
Acting Assistant Secretary--Fish and Wildlife and Parks.
[FR Doc. 2011-16926 Filed 7-5-11; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-MN-P