68466 Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 250 / Wednesday, December 31, 1997 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation

Proposed Rule Making for Offstream

Storage of Colorado River Water and

Interstate Redemption of Storage

Credits in the Lower Division States

AGENCY: Bureau of Reclamation,

Interior.

ACTION: Notice of availability of draft

programmatic environmental

assessment (DPEA).

SUMMARY: Pursuant to the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (as

amended), the Bureau or Reclamation

(Reclamation) has prepared a DPEA on

proposed rule making for offstream

storage of Colorado River water and

interstate redemption or use of storage

credits in the lower Division States. The

proposed rule is intended to encourage

further cooperation among the Lower

Division States in resolving common

water resource problems and demands.

The proposed rule would establish a

procedural framework under which

authorized entities in the Lower

Division States could store offstream

certain Colorado River water, develop

storage credits associated with that

water, and use those credits within the

Lower Division.

ADDRESSES: For copies of the DPEA,

write to either (1) Mr. James Green, LC–

2506, Environmental Compliance and

Realty Group, Resource Management

Office (Mead Bldg), Lower Colorado

Regional Office, Bureau of Reclamation,

P.O. Box 61470, Boulder City, NV

89006–1470; or (2) Bureau of

Reclamation, Lower Colorado Regional

Liaison, 1849 C St. NW, Washington, DC

20240, telephone (202) 208–6269.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Mr. James Green at (702) 293–8519.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The DPEA

describes the present status of river

operations in the Lower Colorado River

Basin and analyzes potential impacts

associated with the implementation of

the proposed rule. A programmatic

approach has been adopted because

many of the details of specific interstate

agreements under the proposed rule

cannot be ascertained at this time. Such

agreements would be subject to

approval by the Secretary of the Interior

(Secretary). Appropriate environmental

compliance documentation will be

prepared on a case-by-case basis prior to

the Secretary’s approval of an interstate

agreement. The public comment period

for the proposed rule and the DPEA will

run concurrently. Comments will be

accepted through March 2, 1998. If you

wish to comment, you may submit your

comments by any one of several

methods. You may mail or hand-deliver

comments to Mr. James Green at the

address noted in ADDRESSES above. You

may also comment via the Internet at

bjohnson@lc.usbr.gov. If you comment

via the Internet at this address please

submit comments as an ASCII file

avoiding the use of special characters

and any form of encryption. Please also

include ‘‘attn: AC1006–AA40’’ and your

name and return address in your

Internet message. If you do not receive

a confirmation from the system that we

have received your Internet message,

contact us directly at (702) 293–8411.

Upon request, Reclamation will hold

informational meetings on the DPEA in

January or February 1998. Reclamation

will accept requests for informational

meetings until 4:00 p.m. Pacific time on

January 30, 1998. If Reclamation

receives a request to hold an

informational meeting(s), Reclamation

will notify interested parties of the time

and location of the meeting(s).

The DPEA has been prepared in

accordance with: (1) The National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969

(NEPA) as amended, and (2) regulations

of the Council on Environmental

Quality for implementing the

procedural provisions of NEPA (40 CFR

parts 1500–1508).

Dated: December 22, 1997.

R. Steven Richardson,

Director, Policy and External Affairs.

[FR Doc. 97–33989 Filed 12–30–97; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4310–94–M