23780 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices

the project exemptee, failed to complete

construction of the project within the

required time frame. Under article 3 of

the exemption, the Commission has the

authority to revoke the exemption

should the exemptee fail to complete

project construction within the required

time frame. In the environmental

assessment (EA), staff concludes that

revocation of the project would not

constitute a major Federal action

significantly affecting the quality of the

human environment. The Bannister Mill

Project is located on Sewall Brook near

the town of Boylston in Worcester

County, Massachusetts.

The EA was written by staff in the

Office of Hydropower Licensing,

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Copies of the EA are available for review

at the Commission’s Reference and

Information Center, Room 2–A, 888

First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.

20426.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–11459 Filed 4–29–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

[Project No. 2487–006]

John M. Skorupski; Notice of Site Visit

and Scoping Meetings Pursuant to the

National Environmental Policy Act of

1969

April 24, 1998.

On March 27, 1998, the Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission

(Commission) issued a letter accepting

the John M. Skorupski’s application for

new license for the Hoosick Falls Hydro

Project, located on the Hoosick River in

Rensselaer County, New York.

The purpose of this notice is to: (1)

advise all parties as to the proposed

scope of the staff’s environmental

analysis, including cumulative effects,

and to seek additional information

pertinent to this analysis; and (2) advise

all parties of their opportunity for

comment.

Scoping Process

The Commission’s scoping objectives

are to:

• Identify significant environmental

issues;

• Determine the depth of analysis

appropriate to each issue;

• Identify the resource issues not

requiring detailed analysis; and

• Identify reasonable project

alternatives.

The purpose of the scoping process is

to identify significant issues related to

the proposed action and to determine

what issues should be addressed in the

environmental document to be prepared

pursuant to the National Environmental

Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The

document entitled ‘‘Scoping Document’’

(SD) will be circulated shortly to enable

appropriate federal, state, and local

resource agencies, developers, Indian

tribes, nongovernmental organizations

(NGO’s), and other interested parties to

effectively participate in and contribute

to the scoping process. SD provides a

brief description of the proposed action,

project alternatives, the geographic and

temporal scope of a cumulative effects

analysis, and a list of preliminary issues

identified by staff.

Project Site Visit

The applicant and the Commission

staff will conduct a site visit of the

Hoosick Falls Hydro Project on May 19,

1998, at 1:00 p.m. They will meet at the

project powerhouse, located off Rt. 22,

north of Hoosick Falls. All interested

individuals, NGO’s and agencies are

invited to attend. All participants are

responsible for their own transportation.

For more details, interested parties

should contact Mr. Douglas Clark, the

applicant contact, at (518) 794–8613,

prior to the site visit date.

Scoping Meetings

The Commission staff will hold

scoping meetings on May 18 and 19,

1998, in preparation for completing an

Environmental Assessment (EA), under

the National Environmental Policy Act

(NEPA), for relicensing the Hoosick

Falls Project.

Commission staff will hold the

scoping meetings in the vicinity of the

Hoosick Falls Project: one evening

meeting and one morning meeting. The

evening will focus on receiving input

from the public, whereas the afternoon

meeting will focus on resource agency

concerns. We invite all interested

agencies, NGOs, and individuals to

attend one or both of the meetings, and

to assist staff in identifying the scope of

environmental issues that should be

analyzed in the EA. The times and

locations of these meetings are shown

below.

Evening Scoping Meeting

Date: May 18, 1998.

Time: 7:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.

Place: Hoosick Falls Town Hall, 80

Church St., Hoosick Falls, NY 12090,

(518) 686–4571.

Morning Scoping Meeting

Date: May 19, 1998.

Time: 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m.

Place: Hoosick Falls Town Hall, 80

Church St., Hoosick Falls, NY 12090,

(518) 686–4571.

To help focus discussions, we will

distribute a Scoping Document (SD)

outlining the areas to be addressed at

the meetings to the parties on the

Commission’s mailing list. Copies of the

SD also will be available at the scoping

meetings.

Objectives

At the scoping meetings, the staff will:

(1) summarize the environmental issues

tentatively identified for analysis in the

EA; (2) solicit from the meeting

participants all available information,

especially quantifiable data, on the

resources at issue; (3) encourage

statements on environmental issues that

should be analyzed in the EA, including

opinions in favor of, or in opposition to,

the staff’s preliminary list of issues; (4)

determine the depth of analysis for

issues addressed in the EA; and (5)

identify resource issues that will not

require detailed analysis in the EA.

The scoping meetings will be

recorded by a court reporter, and all

statements (oral and written) will

become part of the Commission’s public

record for the project. Before each

meeting starts, all individuals who

attend, especially those individuals that

intend to make statements during the

meeting, will be asked to sign in and

clearly identify themselves for the

record prior to speaking. Time allotted

for presentations will be determined by

staff based on the length of the meetings

and the number of people wanting to

speak. All individuals wishing to speak

will be provided at least five minutes to

present their views.

Interested parties who choose not to

speak, or are unable to attend the

scoping meetings, may provide written

comments and information to the

Commission until June 1, 1998. Written

comments and information should be

submitted to the Secretary, Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission, 888

First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C.

20426.

The first page of all filings should

indicate ‘‘Hoosick Falls Project, FERC

No. 2487–006’’ at the top of the page.

All filings sent to the Secretary of the

Commission should contain an original

and eight copies. Failure to file an

original and eight copies may result in

appropriate staff not receiving the

benefit of your comments in a timely

manner. Furthermore, participants in

this proceeding are reminded that if

they file comments with the

Commission, they must serve a copy of
Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 83 /Thursday, April 30, 1998 / Notices 23781

their filing to the parties on the

Commission’s service list.

For further information, please

contact John Costello at (202) 219–2914.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–11458 Filed 4–29–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

[Project No. 11072–001 New York]

Trenton Falls Hydroelectric Company,

Inc.; Notice of Availability of Final

Environmental Assessment

April 24, 1998.

In accordance with the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and

the Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission’s (Commission)

regulations, 18 CFR Part 380 (Order No.

486, 52 FR 47897), the Office of

Hydropower Licensing has reviewed the

application for original license for the

Boyd Dam Hydroelectric Project, located

on the East Branch of the Fish Creek in

Lewis County, New York, and has

prepared a Final Environmental

Assessment (FEA) for the project.

Copies of the FEA are available in the

Public Reference Branch, Room 2–A, of

the Commission’s offices at 888 First

Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426.

For further information, contact

William Diehl at (202) 219–2813 or Ed

Lee at (202) 219–2809.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–11460 Filed 4–29–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

AGENCY

[FRL–6006–3]

Agency Information Collection

Activities: Proposed Collection;

Comment Request; NPDES

Modification and Variance Requests

AGENCY: Environmental Protection

Agency (EPA).

ACTION: Notice.

SUMMARY: In compliance with the

Paperwork Reduction Act (44 U.S.C.

3501 et seq.), this notice announces that

EPA is planning to submit the following

continuing Information Collection

Request (ICR) to the Office of

Management and Budget (OMB):

National Pollutant Discharge

Elimination System (NPDES)

Modification and Variance Requests,

EPA ICR No. 0029.07, OMB No. 2040–

0068, expires August 31, 1998. Before

submitting the ICR to OMB for review

and approval, EPA is soliciting

comments on specific aspects of the

proposed information collection as

described below.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on

or before June 29, 1998.

ADDRESSES: A copy of the ICR will be

available at the Water Docket (W–98–

11), Mail Code–4101, U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency, 401

M. Street, S.W., Washington, D.C.

20460. Copies of the ICR can be

obtained free of charge by writing to this

address. All public comments shall be

submitted to: ATTN: NPDES

Modification and Variance ICR Renewal

Comment Clerk, W–98–11, Water

Docket MC–4101, U.S. EPA, 401 M

Street SW, Washington, DC 20460.

Please submit the original and three

copies of your comments and enclosures

(including references). Commenters who

want EPA to acknowledge receipt of

their comments should enclose a selfaddressed stamped envelope. No

facsimiles (faxes) will be accepted.

Comments may also be submitted

electronically to: owdocket@epamail.epa.gov

Electronic comments must be

submitted as an ASCII file avoiding the

use of special characters and forms of

encryption. Electronic comments must

be identified by the docket number W–

98–11. No Confidential Business

Information (CBI) should be submitted

through e-mail. Comments and data will

also be accepted on disks in

WordPerfect 5.1 format or ASCII file

format. Electronic comments on this

notice may be filed online at many

Federal Depository Libraries. The record

for this proposed ICR revision has been

established under docket number W–

98–11, and includes supporting

documentation as well as printed, paper

versions of electronic comments. It does

not include any information claimed as

CBI. The record is available for

inspection from 9 am to 4 pm, Monday

through Friday, excluding legal

holidays, at the Water Docket, Room

M2616, Washington, DC 20460. For

access to the docket materials, please

call (202) 260–3027 to schedule an

appointment.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Angela Lee, Phone: (202) 260–6814, Fax:

(202) 260–9544, E-mail:

Lee.Angela@EPAmail.EPA.gov

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Affected entities: Entities potentially

affected by this action are NPDES

permit applicants that request a

variance from the conditions that would

normally be imposed on the applicant’s

discharge or NPDES permittees that

request a modification of the NPDES or

sewage sludge management permit

conditions.

Title: NPDES Modification and

Variance Requests (OMB Control No.

2040–0068, EPA ICR No. 0029.07)

expiring 8/31/98.

Abstract: This ICR calculates the

burden and costs associated with

modifications and variances made to

NPDES permits and to the National

Sewage Sludge Management Program

permit requirements. The regulations

specified at 40 CFR 122.62 and 122.63

specify information a facility must

report in order for the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

to determine whether a permit

modification is warranted. A NPDES

permit applicant may request a variance

from the conditions that would

normally be imposed on the applicant’s

discharge. An applicant must submit

information so the permitting authority

can assess whether the facility is eligible

for a variance, and what deviation from

Clean Water Act (CWA) provisions is

necessary. In general, EPA and

authorized States use the information to

determine whether: (1) the condi-tions

or requirements that would warrant a

modification or variance exist, and (2)

the progress toward achieving the goals

of the Clean Water Act will continue if

the modification or variance is granted.

Other uses for the information provided

include: Updating records on permitted

facilities, supporting enforcement

actions, and overall program

management, including policy and

budget development and responding to

Congressional inquiries. An agency may

not conduct or sponsor, and a person is

not required to respond to, a collection

of information unless it displays a

currently valid OMB control number.

The OMB control numbers for EPA’s

regulations are listed in 40 CFR Part 9

and 48 CFR Chapter 15.

The EPA would like to solicit

comments to:

(i) Evaluate whether the proposed

collection of information is necessary

for the proper performance of the

functions of the agency, including

whether the information will have

practical utility;

(ii) Evaluate the accuracy of the

agency’s estimate of the burden of the

proposed collec-tion of information,

including the validity of the

methodology and assumptions used;

(iii) Enhance the quality, utility, and

clarity of the information to be

collected; and