32654 Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 114 / Monday, June 15, 1998 / Notices

1 81 FERC ¶ 61,103 (1997)

taken, but will not serve to make

Protestants parties to the proceeding.

Any person wishing to become a party

must file a motion to intervene. Copies

of this filing are on file with the

Commission and are available for public

inspection.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–15818 Filed 6–12–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

[Project 2177, GA]

Georgia Power Company; Notice of

Scoping Meeting Pursuant to the

National Environmental Policy Act of

1969 for an Applicant Prepared

Environmental Assessment and a Site

Visit

June 9, 1998.

The Commission’s regulations allow

applicants to prepare their own

Environmental Assessment (EA) for

hydropower projects and file it with the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

(Commission) along with their license

application as part of the applicantprepared EA (APEA) process.1 On May

26, 1998, the Commission approved the

use of the APEA process in the

preparation of license application for

Georgia Power Companies’ (GPC)

Middle Chattahoochee Project, No.

2177.

GPC will hold two public meetings,

pursuant to the National Environmental

Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, to identify

the scope of environmental issues that

should be analyzed in the EA. At the

scoping meetings, GPC will: (1)

summarize the environmental issues

tentatively identified for analysis in the

EA; (2) outline any resources they

believe would not require a detailed

analysis; (3) identify reasonable

alternatives to be addressed in the EA;

(4) solicit from the meeting participants

all available information, especially

quantitative data, on the resources at

issue; and (5) encourage statements from

experts and the public on issues that

should be analyzed in the EA.

Although GPC’s intent is to prepare

an EA, there is the possibility that an

Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)

will be required. Nevertheless, this

meeting will satisfy the NEPA scoping

requirements, irrespective of whether an

EA or EIS is issued by the Commission.

Scoping Meetings

The times and locations of the

scoping meeting are:

Agency scoping meeting Public scoping meeting

July 9, 1998, 8:30 am to Noon, The Columbus Hilton, Chattahoochee

Room, 800 Front Street, Columbus GA 31901, (706) 324–1800.

July 9, 1998, 7:00 pm, Columbus State University, Elizabeth Bradley

Turner Center, 4225 University Avenue, Columbus, GA 31907, (706)

568–2023.

All interested individuals,

organizations, and agencies are invited

and encouraged to attend any or all of

the meetings to assist in identifying and

clarifying the scope of environmental

issues that should be analyzed in the

EA.

To help focus discussions, GPC

prepared and distributed a scoping

document on May 6, 1998. Copies of the

Scoping Document can be obtained by

calling George Martin, Georgia Power

Company, at (404) 506–1357. Copies of

the document will also be available at

the scoping meetings.

Site Visit

GPC has also scheduled a site visit,

for all interested individuals, to the

Middle Chattahoochee Project on

Thursday, July 9, 1998. The site visit

participants will depart from the

Columbus Hilton at 1:30 pm and will

return to the Columbus Hilton at 5:00

pm.

Meeting Procedures

The meetings will be conducted

according to the procedures used at

Commission scoping meetings. Because

this meeting will be a NEPA scoping

meeting under the APEA process, the

Commission does not intend to conduct

a NEPA scoping meeting after the

application and draft EA are filed with

the Commission. Instead, Commission

staff will attend the meetings on July 9,

1998.

All the scoping meetings will be

recorded by a stenographer or tape

recorder, and will become part of the

formal record of the proceedings for this

project.

Those who choose not to speak during

the scoping meetings may instead

submit written comments on the project.

Written comments should be mailed to:

Mr. C.M. Hobson, Manager,

Environmental Affairs, Georgia Power

Company, 241 Ralph McGill Boulevard

NE, BIN 10221, Atlanta, GA 30308–

3374, Attn: George Martin, by

September 8, 1998. All correspondence

should show the following caption on

the first page: Scoping Comments,

Middle Chattahoochee Project

Hydroelectric Project (2177).

For further information please

contract George Martin at (404) 506–

1357 or Ronald McKitrick of the

Commission at (404) 770–2363 ext. 44.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 98–15794 Filed 6–12–98; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission

Notice of Application Tendered for

Filing With the Commission

June 9, 1998.

Take notice that the following

hydroelectric application has been filed

with the Commission and is available

for public inspection:

a. Type of Application: New License.

b. Project No.: 2731–020.

c. Date Filed: May 27, 1998.

d. Applicant: Central Vermont Public

Service Corporation.

e. Name of Project: Weybridge

Hydroelectric Project.

f. Location: On Otter Creek, which

discharges into Lake Champlain, in the

towns of Weybridge and New Haven,

Addison County, Vermont.