Federal Register / Vol. 83, No. 136 / Monday, July 16, 2018 / Notices 32945 

1The Board modified its OFA procedures 

effective July 29, 2017. Among other things, the 

OFA process now requires potential offerors, in 

their formal expression of intent, to make a 

preliminary financial responsibility showing based 

on a calculation using information contained in the 

carrier’s filing and publicly available information. 

See Offers of Financial Assistance, EP 729 (STB 

served June 29, 2017); 82 FR 30,997 (July 5, 2017). 

2Each OFA must be accompanied by the filing 

fee, which currently is set at $1,800. See 

Regulations Governing Fees for Servs. Performed in 

Connection with Licensing & Related Servs.—2017 

Update, EP 542 (Sub-No. 25) (STB served July 28, 

2017). 

3Because these are discontinuance proceedings 

and not abandonments, trail use/rail banking and 

public use conditions are not appropriate. Because 

there will be an environmental review during 

abandonment, these discontinuances do not require 

environmental review. 

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD 

[Docket No. AB 290 (Sub-No. 401X); Docket 

No. AB 1058X] 

Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia 

Railway Company—Discontinuance of 

Service Exemption—in Walker County, 

Ga.; Chattooga & Chickamauga 

Railway Company—Discontinuance of 

Lease and Trackage Rights 

Operations—in Walker County, Ga. and 

Hamilton County, Tenn. 

Tennessee, Alabama & Georgia 

Railway Company (TAG), a wholly 

owned subsidiary of Norfolk Southern 

Railway Company, and Chattooga & 

Chickamauga Railway Company (CCKY) 

(collectively, TAG and CCKY are 

referred to as Railroads) have jointly 

filed a verified notice of exemption 

under 49 CFR pt. 1152 subpart F— 

Exempt Abandonments and 

Discontinuances of Service for (1) TAG 

to discontinue service over 

approximately 16.8 miles of rail line 

extending between milepost TA 6.3 (at 

or near Flintstone, Ga.) and milepost TA 

23.l (at or near Hedges, Ga.) in Walker 

County, Ga.; (2) CCKY to discontinue its 

lease of approximately 19.20 miles of 

rail line owned by TAG and the 

Alabama Great Southern Railroad 

Company (AGS) extending between 

milepost TA 3.94 (at Chattanooga, 

Tenn.) and milepost TA 23.1 in 

Hamilton County, Tenn., and Walker 

County, Ga.; and (3) CCKY to 

discontinue overhead trackage rights it 

holds over the following connecting 

lines, all located in Chattanooga, 

Hamilton County, Tenn.: (a) AGS’s line 

between milepost G–2.66 at a 

connection with TAG and milepost G– 

1.02 at the north end of Shipp Yard, a 

distance of 1.6 miles; (b) Central of 

Georgia Railroad Company’s (COG) line 

between milepost C–445.4 and its 

connection with TAG at milepost TA 

3.94, a distance of approximately 1.5 

miles; and (c) TAG’s rail line between 

milepost TA 3.94 and milepost TA 3.39 

(at TAG’s connection with AGS), a 

distance of approximately 0.55 miles 

(collectively, the ‘‘Line’’). The Line 

traverses United States Postal Zip Codes 

30725, 30707, 37407, 37408, 37409, and 

37410. 

The Railroads have certified that: (1) 

They have handled no local or overhead 

common carrier service over the Line for 

at least two years; (2) overhead traffic, 

if there were any, could be rerouted over 

other lines; (3) no formal complaint 

filed by a user of a rail service on the 

Line (or by a state or local government 

entity acting on behalf of such user) 

regarding cessation of service over the 

Line is pending either with the Surface 

Transportation Board (Board) or with 

any U.S. District Court or has been 

decided in favor of a complainant 

within the two-year period; and (4) the 

requirements at 49 CFR 1105.12 

(newspaper publication) and 49 CFR 

1152.50(d)(1) (notice to government 

agencies) have been met. 

As a condition to these exemptions, 

any employee adversely affected by the 

discontinuances of service shall be 

protected under Oregon Short Line 

Railroad—Abandonment Portion 

Goshen Branch Between Firth & 

Ammon, in Bingham & Bonneville 

Counties, Idaho, 360 I.C.C. 91 (1979). To 

address whether this condition 

adequately protects affected employees, 

a petition for partial revocation under 

49 U.S.C. 10502(d) must be filed. 

Provided no formal expression of 

intent to file an offer of financial 

assistance (OFA) 1 to subsidize 

continued rail service has been 

received, these exemptions will be 

effective August 15, 2018, unless stayed 

pending reconsideration. Petitions to 

stay that do not involve environmental 

issues and formal expressions of intent 

to file an OFA to subsidize continued 

rail service under 49 CFR 1152.27(c)(2) 2

must be filed by July 26, 2018.3

Petitions for reconsideration must be 

filed by August 6, 2018, with the 

Surface Transportation Board, 395 E 

Street SW, Washington, DC 20423–0001. 

A copy of any petition filed with 

Board should be sent to the Railroads’ 

representative, William A. Mullins, 

Baker & Miller PLLC, 2401 Pennsylvania 

Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 

20037. 

If the verified notice contains false or 

misleading information, the exemption 

is void ab initio. 

Board decisions and notices are 

available on our website at: 

www.stb.gov. 

Decided: July 11, 2018. 

By the Board, Scott M. Zimmerman, Acting 

Director, Office of Proceedings. 

Marline Simeon, 

Clearance Clerk. 

[FR Doc. 2018–15142 Filed 7–13–18; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4915–01–P 

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY 

Supplemental Environmental Impact 

Statement—Natural Resource Plan 

AGENCY: Tennessee Valley Authority. 

ACTION: Notice of intent. 

SUMMARY: The Tennessee Valley 

Authority (TVA) intends to prepare a 

supplemental environmental impact 

statement (EIS) addressing proposed 

changes to its Natural Resource Plan 

(NRP). Public comment is invited 

concerning the scope of the 

supplemental EIS, including how the 

plan addresses TVA’s management of 

natural and cultural resources and the 

environmental issues that should be 

addressed in the supplemental EIS. 

DATES: Comments must be received on 

or before August 20, 2018. To facilitate 

the scoping process, TVA will hold 

public scoping meetings in late July and 

early August 2018; see https://

www.tva.gov/nrp for the dates and 

locations of the scoping meetings. 

ADDRESSES: Written comments should 

be sent to Matthew Higdon, Tennessee 

Valley Authority, 400 W Summit Hill 

Drive #WT11D, Knoxville, Tennessee 

37902. Comments may also be emailed 

to nrp@tva.gov or submitted on the TVA 

website at: https://www.tva.gov/nrp. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For 

information on the EIS process, contact 

Matthew Higdon, NEPA Specialist, by 

email at mshigdon@tva.gov or by phone 

at (865) 632–8051. For information 

about the NRP, contact Anthony 

Summitt by email at adsummitt@tva.gov 

or by phone at (423) 467–3811. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

notice is provided in accordance with 

the Council on Environmental Quality’s 

regulations (40 CFR parts 1500 to 1508) 

and TVA’s procedures for implementing 

the National Environmental Policy Act 

(NEPA) and Section 106 of the National 

Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and 

its implementing regulations (36 CFR 

part 800). 

Background 

TVA is an executive branch, corporate 

agency and instrumentality of the 

United States, established by an act of 

Congress in 1933, to foster the social 

and economic welfare of the people of 

the Tennessee Valley region and to 


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