[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 5 (Friday, January 7, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 988-990]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-27518]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Land Management

[21X LLUTC01000 L51010000 ER0000 LVRWJ21J4210; UTU-92733; 00-00000]


Notice of Availability of the Pine Valley Water Supply Project 
Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Beaver and Iron Counties, UT

AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of Availability.

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SUMMARY: In compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act 
of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) 
announces the availability of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) for a right-of-way (ROW) application submitted by the Central 
Iron County Water Conservancy District (CICWCD), referred to as the 
Pine Valley Water Supply (PVWS) Project.

DATES: This notice initiates the 45-day comment period. To ensure 
comments will be considered, the BLM must receive written comments on 
the proposed PVWS Project Draft EIS by February 22, 2022. The BLM will 
announce public involvement opportunities at least 15 days in advance 
on the BLM ePlanning project website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/1503915/510.

ADDRESSES: The Draft EIS is available for review on the BLM ePlanning 
project website at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/1503915/510. Written comments related to the PVWS Project Draft EIS may 
be submitted by either of the following methods:
    1. Email: [email protected].
    2. Mail: Bureau of Land Management, Attn: PVWS, 176 DL Sargent 
Drive, Cedar City, Utah 84721.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Brooklynn Cox, Cedar City Field Office 
Realty Specialist, telephone (435) 865-3073; 176 DL Sargent Dr., Cedar 
City, UT 84721; [email protected]. Persons who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf may call the Federal Relay 
Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to leave a message or question for the 
above individual. The FRS is available 24 hours a day, seven days a 
week. Replies are provided during normal business hours. If you would 
like to request to view a hard copy, please call the Cedar City Field 
Office for more information at (435) 865-3000, Monday through Friday, 
except holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 15, 2017, CICWCD applied for a ROW

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grant for the PVWS Project on BLM-administered public land in western 
Iron and Beaver counties, Utah. The proposed project would develop and 
convey groundwater rights as permitted by the Utah Division of Water 
Resources to the CICWCD in Pine Valley, located in Beaver County west 
of Milford, Utah.
    The Draft EIS considers the proposed action to develop production 
wells within Pine Valley in Beaver County. The project also includes 
the development of buried lateral pipelines to connect the wells to a 
buried mainline, access roads, power transmission lines, a solar energy 
field, a 10-million-gallon underground water storage tank, and an up to 
70-mile-long underground water transmission pipeline to transport water 
to Iron County communities. The ROW as proposed would be 50 feet wide, 
for a term of 30-years. During construction, there would be an 
additional 70-foot-wide temporary ROW; therefore, the total ROW width 
during that timeframe would be 120 feet.
    The BLM is required to respond to CICWCD's application for a ROW 
under Title V of FLPMA and 43 CFR part 2800. The decision to be made by 
the BLM is to: Approve, approve with modifications, or deny the 
issuance of a ROW grant to CICWCD for the PVWS Project.
    The BLM initiated scoping with the publication of a Notice of 
Intent in the Federal Register on July 15, 2020 (85 F R 42914), and the 
scoping period remained open through August 19, 2020. The bureau held 
an online public scoping meeting on August 5, 2020. A summary of the 
comments received during the scoping period can be found in the scoping 
report posted at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/1503915/510. The Draft EIS considers in detail the impacts of the 
Proposed Action Alternative, an Adaptive Northern Well Sites (ANWS) 
Alternative, and a No Action Alternative. Under the No Action 
Alternative, the BLM would deny CICWCD's application for a ROW grant 
for construction and operation of the proposed project. The No Action 
Alternative provides a baseline against which to compare the action 
alternatives in the EIS.
    The Proposed Action Alternative includes development of up to 15 
production wells, 10 of which would be on BLM-administered public land, 
an estimated seven monitoring wells, up to 70 miles of buried pipeline, 
and other associated and appurtenant facilities. There are also eight 
existing monitoring wells drilled under a previous authorization that 
would be included in the new 30-year ROW grant. Power to the well pumps 
would be provided by an approximately 35-megawatt solar energy field 
that would be constructed in Pine Valley on approximately 200 acres 
located within the southern half of a 640-acre section of CICWCD-owned 
land. No portion of the solar energy field would be on BLM-administered 
land. Three sections of pipeline would be constructed for the project. 
Smaller lateral or collection lines would extend from each of the 
production wells to the main line. A main line (Pine Valley main 
pipeline) would convey the water from the lateral lines to a point 4.7 
miles west of Lund, Utah, and a larger main line (Avon Road main 
pipeline) would convey the water from the point 4.7 miles west of Lund 
to Cedar City, Utah. The project would require an estimated total of up 
to 70 miles of pipeline. Of this total, up to 42.6 miles would be 
located on BLM-administered land. Water from the Pine Valley main 
pipeline would be collected into storage tanks located within a 10-acre 
site at the high point of the alignment. The tanks themselves would be 
approximately 200 feet wide by 200 feet long by 35 feet tall and 
contain up to 10 million gallons of water. The tanks would be located 
within 2.5 acres of land owned by the Utah School and Institutional 
Trust Lands Administration, with pipes extending across BLM-
administered land to and from the main line located along Pine Valley 
Road. One pressure-reducing station may be required near Lund to reduce 
the pipeline pressure at this location. No portion of the pressure-
reducing station would be on BLM-administered land. Approximately six 
miles of unimproved roads would be used to access the monitoring wells. 
Temporary construction access would be via public roads and/or 
contained within the temporary 120-foot-wide ROW associated with the 
construction. Twenty temporary staging areas are identified along the 
Pine Valley main pipeline and Avon Road main pipeline corridors. 
Construction would take up to approximately 42 months.
    The BLM developed the ANWS Alternative to address some of the 
uncertainty surrounding potential groundwater impacts and assess 
whether a project alternative with a more northerly wellfield 
configuration would reduce potential impacts to aquifers south of Pine 
Valley. The ANWS Alternative is an adaptive management approach. Up to 
six production wells and an estimated seven monitoring wells would be 
completed as described in the Proposed Action Alternative. After 
monitoring, if drawdown in the southern aquifers becomes a concern, up 
to nine additional production wells (for a total of up to 15), and 
associated pipelines, would be installed farther north in Pine Valley, 
along the Pine Valley Road. The number and location of new production 
wells would be based on the level of impacts to the southern aquifer, 
as shown through monitoring. In addition to the potential impacts from 
the Proposed Action Alternative, up to 7.3 additional miles of pipeline 
and up to 7.4 additional miles of power transmission line may be 
required. This would bring the total pipeline miles required under the 
ANWS Alternative to up to 77.3.
    An adaptive management monitoring and mitigation plan is included 
as a component of project implementation under both action 
alternatives, which requires monitoring to identify how the aquifer is 
responding and provides mitigation measures that could be implemented 
to minimize impacts from the changes in groundwater level. The BLM has 
not identified a preferred alternative in the Draft EIS. A preferred 
alternative will be identified in the Final EIS after consideration of 
comments received from the public.
    The BLM will continue to provide and coordinate public 
participation opportunities to assist the agencies in satisfying the 
public involvement requirements under section 106 of the National 
Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) (16 U.S.C. 470f) pursuant to 36 CFR 
800.2(d)(3). Information about historic and cultural resources within 
the area potentially affected by the Proposed Action Alternative will 
assist the BLM in identifying and evaluating impacts to such resources 
in the context of both NEPA and Section 106 of the NHPA.
    The BLM will continue to consult with American Indian Tribes on a 
government-to-government basis in accordance with Executive Order 13175 
and other policies. Tribal concerns, including impacts on Indian trust 
assets and potential impacts to cultural resources, will be given due 
consideration. Federal, State, and local agencies, along with Tribes 
and other stakeholders that may be interested in or affected by the 
proposed PVWS Project, are encouraged to review and comment on the 
Draft EIS. The BLM will respond to substantive comments by making 
appropriate revisions to the documents or explaining why a comment did 
not warrant a change.
    Before including your phone number, email address, or other 
personal identifying information in your comment, you should be aware 
that

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your entire comment--including your personal identifying information--
may be made publicly available at any time. While you can ask the BLM 
in your comment to withhold your personal identifying information from 
public review, the BLM cannot guarantee that it will be able to do so.
    Authority: 43 CFR 2800, 40 CFR 1502.9, 40 CFR 1506.6, 43 CFR 
46.435, and 43 CFR 1610.2.

Gregory Sheehan,
State Director, Bureau of Land Management, Utah.
[FR Doc. 2021-27518 Filed 1-6-22; 8:45 am]
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