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[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 126 (Thursday, June 29, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40090-40091]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-16423]

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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visit and Soliciting Scoping 
Comments

June 23, 2000.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric applications have been 
filed with Commission and are available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Applications: New Major Licenses.
    b. Projects: Soda Project No. 20-019, Grace-Cove Project No. 2401-
007, and Oneida Project No. 472-017.
    c. Date filed: September 27, 1999.
    d. Applicant: PacifiCorp.
    e. Location: On the Bear River in Caribou and Franklin Counties, 
Idaho. The projects are partially on United States lands administered 
by the Bureau of Land Management.
    f. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 USC 791(a)-825(r).
    g. Applicant Contact: Randy Landolt, Director, Hydro Resources, 
PacifiCorp, 825 N.E. Multnomah Street, Suite 1500, Portland, OR 97232, 
(503) 813-6650, or, Thomas H. Nelson, 825 Multnomah Street, Suite 925, 
Portland, OR 97232, (503) 813-5890.
    h. FERC Contact: Susan O'Brien, [email protected], (202) 
219-2840.
    i. Deadline for filing scoping comments: September 14, 2000.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
David P. Boergers, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
interveners filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person on the official service list for the 
project. Further, if an intervener files comments or documents with the 
Commission relating to the merits of an issue that may affect the 
responsibilities of a particular resource agency, they must also serve 
a copy of the document on that resource agency.
    j. This application is not ready for environmental analysis at this 
time.
    k. The existing Soda Project consists of: (1) the 103-foot-high and 
433-foot-long concrete gravity Soda Dam with a 114-foot-long spillway 
section; (2) the Soda Reservoir with a surface area of 1,100 acres, an 
active storage capacity of 16,300 acre-feet, and a maximum water 
elevation of 5,720 feet; (3) the Soda Powerhouse containing two units 
with a total installed capacity of 14 megawatts (MW); and (4) other 
appurtenances.
    The existing Grace Development consists of: (1) a 51-foot-high and 
180-foot-long rock filled timber crib dam that creates a 250 acre-feet 
usable storage capacity forebay; (2) a 26,000-foot-long flowline and 
surge tanks; and (3) a powerhouse with three units with total installed 
capacity of 33 MW. The Cove Development consists of: (1) a 26.5-foot-
high and 141-foot-long concrete dam creating a 60-acre-foot forebay; 
(2) a 6,125-foot-long concrete and wood flume; (3) a 500-foot-long 
steel penstock; and (4) a powerhouse with a 7.5-MW unit.
    The existing Oneida Project consists of: (1) the 111-foot-high and 
456-foot-long concrete gravity Oneida Dam; (2) the Oneida Reservoir 
with an active storage of 10,880 acre-feet and a surface area of 480 
acres; (3) an 16-foot-diameter, 2,240-foot-long flowline; (4) a surge 
tank; (5) three 12-foot-diameter, 120-foot-diameter, 120-foot-long 
steel penstocks; (6) the Oneida Powerhouse with three units with a 
total installed capacity of 30 MW; and (7) other appurtenances.
    l. A copy of the application is available for inspection and 
reproduction at the Commission's Public Reference Room, located at 888 
First Street, NE, Room 2A, Washington, DC 20426, or by calling (202) 
208-1371. The application may be viewed on http://www.ferc.fed.us/rims.htm (call (202) 208-2222 for assistance). A copy is also available 
for inspection and reproduction at the address in item g above.
    m. Scoping Process
    The Commission intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement 
(EIS) on the project in accordance with the National Environmental 
Policy Act. The EIS will consider both site-specific and cumulative 
environmental impacts and reasonable alternatives to the proposed 
action.

Scoping Meetings and Site Visit

    A scoping meeting will be held on Tuesday, August 14, 2000 from 
7:00 p.m. until 10 p.m. at the Caribou County Senior Citizens Center, 
60 South Main Street, Soda Springs, Idaho. A project site visit will be 
scheduled for Tuesday, August 14, 2000 at 9 am, if there is any 
interest. If you would like to attend, please call Susan O'Brien, FERC 
Team Leader, at (202) 219-2840, no later than Thursday, July 27, 2000.
    Copies of the Scoping Document (SDI) outlining the subject areas to 
be addressed in the EIS were distributed to the parties on the 
Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SDI will be available at the 
scoping meeting in August or may be viewed on http://www.ferc.fed.us/

[[Page 40091]]

rims.htm (call (202) 208-2222 for assistance).
    The Commission held scoping meetings, one in the daytime and one in 
the evening, to help identify the scope of issues to be addressed in 
the EIS. The daytime scoping meeting was held on June 15, 2000 at the 
Holiday Inn, 1399 Bench Road, Pocatello, Idaho, and focused on resource 
agency concerns. The evening scoping meeting was held on June 14, 2000 
at the Caribou County Senior Citizens Center, 60 South Main Street, 
Soda Spring, Idaho, and was primarily for public input. The applicant 
and Commission staff also conducted a project site visit on Friday, 
June 16, 2000.
    It was the Commission's intent that all interested individuals, 
organizations, and agencies be invited to attend one or both of the 
meetings and the site visit, and to assist the staff in identifying the 
scope of the environmental issues that should be analyzed in the EIS. 
These meetings and site visit were not noticed in the Federal Register 
or the local newspapers. For that reason, the subject scoping meeting 
and site visit are being scheduled. Transcripts of the June meetings 
will be available shortly and can be viewed on http://www.ferc.fed.us/rims.htm (call (202) 208-2222 for assistance). Transcripts of the 
August meeting will also become available shortly after that meeting.
    The scoping comment period will be extended from July 16, 2000 
until September 14, 2000. Please follow procedures in item i. above.

Objectives

    Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental 
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend the meeting and to 
assist the staff in defining and clarifying the issues to be addressed 
in the EIS.
    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EIS; 
(2) solicit from the meeting participants all available information, 
especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue; (3) encourage 
statememts from experts and the public on issues that should be 
analyzed in the EIS, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the EIS; and (5) identify those issues that 
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not 
require a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings are recorded by a stenographer and become part of the 
formal record of the Commission proceeding on the project.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 00-16423 Filed 6-28-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M
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