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[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 102869-102871]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-29936]

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DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

Department of the Army

 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Reclamation

Notice of Intent To Prepare a Supplemental Environmental Impact 
Statement (SEIS) for the Columbia River System Operations

AGENCY: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, DoD; 
Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Department of the Interior.

ACTION: Notice of intent.

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SUMMARY: In 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), Bureau of 
Reclamation (Reclamation), and Bonneville Power Administration 
(Bonneville) issued the 2020 Columbia River System Operations Final 
Environmental Impact Statement (CRSO EIS; DOE/EIS-0529), which 
addressed the ongoing operations, maintenance, and configuration of 
fourteen Federal Columbia River System (CRS) multiple purpose dams and 
related facilities located throughout the Columbia River basin. The 
Corps and Reclamation (Co-Lead Agencies) intend to prepare a 
supplemental EIS to address environmental effects from proposed changes 
to the selected alternative in the CRSO EIS and new circumstances and 
information about the significance of adverse effects that arose or 
became available after completion of the CRSO EIS. Bonneville has not 
elected to serve as a co-lead agency for this SEIS and has instead 
expressed interest in participating as a cooperating agency.

DATES: The Co-Lead Agencies invite Federal and State agencies, Native 
American Tribes, local governments, and the public to submit scoping 
comments relevant to the supplemental National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) process no later than March 20, 2025. Information will also be 
provided at public meetings. Information on the public meetings is 
provided under the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this Notice of 
Intent.

ADDRESSES: Written comments, requests to be placed on the project 
mailing list, and requests for information may be mailed by letter to 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division Attn: CRSO SEIS, 
P.O. Box 2870, Portland, OR 97208-2870; or by email to 
[email protected]. All comment letters will be available via 
the project website at https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/. All 
comments and materials received, including names and addresses, will 
become part of the administrative record, and may be released to the 
public. Interested parties should not submit confidential business or 
otherwise sensitive or protected information.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tim Fleeger, Columbia River Basin 
Policy and Environmental Coordinator, Northwestern Division, U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers 1 (800) 290-5033 or email 
[email protected]. Additional information can be found at 
the project website: https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/Final-EIS.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    1. Background: The fourteen Federal multiple purpose dams and 
related facilities of the Columbia River System (CRS) are operated as a 
coordinated system within the interior Columbia River basin in Idaho, 
Montana, Oregon, and Washington. The Corps was authorized by Congress 
to construct, operate, and maintain twelve of these projects for 
multiple purposes (project purposes vary by project), including flood 
risk management, power generation, navigation, fish and wildlife 
conservation, recreation, and municipal and industrial water supply: 
namely, Libby, Albeni Falls, Dworshak, Chief Joseph, Lower Granite, 
Little Goose, Lower Monumental, Ice Harbor, McNary, John Day, The 
Dalles, and Bonneville. Reclamation was authorized by Congress to 
construct, operate, and maintain two of these projects for purposes of 
flood risk management, power generation, navigation, and irrigation: 
Hungry Horse and Grand Coulee. Bonneville is responsible for marketing 
and transmitting power the dams generate. Together, the Corps, 
Reclamation, and Bonneville are responsible for managing the system for 
these various purposes.
    In 2020, the Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville completed the CRSO 
EIS and signed a Record of Decision (ROD) selecting their preferred 
alternative identified in the CRSO EIS. Multiple parties filed legal 
challenges to the CRSO EIS and ROD, as well as to the associated 
biological opinions the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and 
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued in conjunction with the 
CRSO EIS.
    Since 2021, the litigation challenging the CRSO EIS ROD and 
biological opinions has been stayed or administratively terminated, 
allowing the U.S. government, including the Corps, Reclamation, 
Bonneville, FWS, and NMFS and other departments and agencies to engage 
in mediated discussions with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
Reservation, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, and the Spokane Tribe of Indians 
as well as Oregon, Washington, the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the 
Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian 
Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of 
Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, local governments, stakeholder groups, and 
nongovernmental organizations.
    In December 2023, the United States Government (USG) signed a 
Memorandum of Understanding (now called the Resilient Columbia Basin 
Agreement (RCBA)) with Oregon, Washington, the Confederated Tribes and 
Bands of the Yakama Nation, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla 
Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs 
Reservation of Oregon, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the National Wildlife 
Federation Plaintiffs. The RCBA provides for a stay of litigation on 
the CRSO EIS ROD and related biological opinions for up to 10 years and 
includes agreed upon CRS operations. The RCBA also includes USG 
commitments to carry out certain analyses related to regional energy 
needs, Tribal circumstances, water supply replacement, transportation 
infrastructure, and recreation and public access, as well as 
commitments on a series of actions to improve conditions for native 
fish species. As part of the RCBA, and consistent with Corps', 
Reclamation's, and Bonneville's ongoing responsibilities under NEPA, 
the USG committed to reviewing existing environmental compliance 
documents and initiating any supplemental or additional environmental 
compliance determined to be necessary in fall of 2024.
    The Co-Lead Agencies are evaluating triggers for supplementation 
under NEPA. In determining the scope of supplemental compliance, the 
Co-Lead Agencies will evaluate new information and circumstances, 
including any: changes to operations, maintenance, and configuration of 
the fourteen projects that make up the Columbia River System; new 
species listed or proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act 
(ESA) (e.g., Wolverine); certain USG Commitments associated with the

[[Page 102870]]

RCBA; relevant reports, studies, or other information published since 
the CRSO EIS was completed (including, but not limited to, the 
Department of the Interior's report, Historic and Ongoing Impacts of 
Federal Dams on the Columbia River Basin Tribes, and other information 
sources referenced in Attachment 2 of the RCBA); and anticipated 
changes in Columbia River inflows to the United States from Canada and 
operational effects in the U.S. related to the modernization of the 
Columbia River Treaty.
    With respect to the latter, the Columbia River's flow at the U.S.-
Canada border is affected by how Canada operates storage reservoirs in 
its portion of the basin. Canada's reservoir operations are affected in 
part by how the Columbia River Treaty operations are managed for flood 
risk management, hydropower generation, and ecosystem purposes in 
coordination with the United States. The CRSO EIS applied 2016 Columbia 
River Treaty operations as the best-available information. Certain 
terms of the Columbia River Treaty regarding preplanned flood risk 
management changed on September 16, 2024, and the countries have been 
negotiating modernized provisions of the Treaty to address these 
changes, along with updates to hydropower coordination, the inclusion 
of ecosystem purposes, and increased Canadian flexibility. The existing 
Treaty's changes in flood risk management along with expected updates 
from the modernization process may lead to changed flows across the 
border from Canada that vary from the assumptions and effects 
contemplated in the 2020 CRSO EIS under certain hydrological 
conditions.
    2. Purpose and Need for the Proposed Action: The ongoing action 
under evaluation in this supplemental NEPA process is the long-term 
coordinated operations, maintenance, and configuration of the Columbia 
River System. The purpose of this action is to operate the Columbia 
River System to meet multiple responsibilities including resource, 
legal, and institutional purposes of the action. The underlying need to 
which the Co-Lead Agencies are responding in this supplemental NEPA 
process is the need to evaluate the selected alternative in light of 
changes to the action and potentially substantial new circumstances and 
information that arose or became available after completion of the CRSO 
EIS ROD and are relevant to environmental effects. The Federal decision 
in this process is to determine whether to modify the selected 
alternative from the CRSO EIS based on potentially substantial changes 
to measures included in the selected alternative, or substantial new 
information or changed circumstances and conditions about the 
significance of adverse effects that bear on the analysis.
    3. Description of Proposed Action and Alternatives: The CRSO EIS 
evaluated a range of alternatives developed to meet the Purpose and 
Need Statement and eight study objectives developed for the EIS. The 
eight objectives, in tandem with the Purpose and Need Statement, 
established the framework for evaluating the ability of an alternative 
to satisfy the Corps', Reclamation's, and Bonneville's numerous legal, 
institutional, and resource obligations. The agencies used an iterative 
process to develop a range of alternatives for the future physical 
configuration, operation, and maintenance of the 14 projects of the 
CRS. The alternatives were developed to achieve a reasonable balance of 
competing resource demands for the available water and for the multiple 
authorized purposes, including evaluating measures to avoid, offset, or 
minimize impacts to resources affected by managing the CRS in the 
context of new information and changed conditions in the Columbia River 
Basin since the System Operation Review EIS in 1997. During the 
preparation of the CRSO EIS, the agencies developed a reasonable range 
of four Multiple Objective Action Alternatives (MOs) suitable for 
analysis in addition to the No Action Alternative. Following analysis 
and identification of effects for the No Action Alternative and the 
four MO alternatives, the Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville used these 
findings to develop a fifth action alternative, which was described as 
the agencies' Preferred Alternative in the CRSO Draft and Final EIS. 
This selected alternative was ultimately chosen in the CRSO EIS ROD 
(Selected Alternative). This supplemental NEPA process is focused on 
addressing potentially substantial changes to the Selected Alternative, 
reviewing potentially substantial new circumstances and information 
that arose or became available after completion of the CRSO EIS, and 
preparing a SEIS. The SEIS will evaluate potential benefits and impacts 
of changes made to the Selected Alternative including direct, indirect, 
and cumulative effects to the human and natural environments.
    4. Summary of Potential Effects: The Corps, Reclamation, and 
Bonneville issued the CRSO EIS ROD in 2020. Since then, a variety of 
new circumstances and information about the significance of effects 
that bear on the NEPA analysis previously conducted have arisen. The 
Co-Lead Agencies will use this information to assess and update, as 
appropriate, the analyses presented in the CRSO EIS. The Co-Lead 
Agencies will analyze any substantial changes in effects relating to 
changes in the Proposed Action such as any changes to operations, 
maintenance, and configuration of the fourteen projects that make up 
the Columbia River System; new species listed or proposed for listing 
under the Endangered Species Act (ESA); anticipated changes in Columbia 
River inflows to the United States from Canada and operational effects 
in the U.S. related to the modernization of the Columbia River Treaty; 
and relevant reports, studies, or other information published since the 
CRSO EIS. This will include an assessment of existing effects analyses 
and additional effects analyses as necessary to ensure compliance with 
applicable environmental laws and regulations, including the ESA and 
the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The Co-Lead Agencies 
will issue a decision following publication of the final SEIS and 
completion of consultation, if necessary, under the ESA.
    At this early stage, it is unknown the full extent to which effects 
analyses results may differ from those presented in the CRSO EIS. 
Because changes and new information involve Columbia River System 
conditions, a broad range of resources may be affected. Accordingly, 
the full range of resources that were analyzed in the CRSO EIS will be 
assessed for potential effects due to proposed changes or changed 
conditions and circumstances. These resources include: river hydrology 
and hydraulics; water quality; aquatic habitat, invertebrates, and 
fish; vegetation, wetlands, wildlife, and floodplains; power generation 
and transmission; air quality and greenhouse gases; flood risk 
management; navigation and transportation; recreation; water supply; 
visual and noise resources; fisheries and passive use; cultural 
resources; Indian trust assets, tribal perspectives, and tribal 
interests; environmental justice; and implementation and system costs.
    5. Anticipated Permits, Other Authorizations, and Other Directives: 
For reasons identified above, the Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville 
have reinitiated ESA consultation with FWS and are evaluating whether 
reinitiation of ESA consultation with NMFS is necessary under section 7 
of the ESA. During the pendency of the ESA consultation and NEPA 
processes, Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville will operate the CRS 
consistent with the current biological opinions and the

[[Page 102871]]

operations identified in the RCBA. Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville 
also will work with NMFS and FWS to ensure compliance with the ESA, 
coordinate environmental reviews, and maintain protections afforded to 
ESA-listed species and critical habitat under existing environmental 
compliance documentation.
    The Co-lead agencies (and Bonneville when appropriate) will comply 
with all applicable statutory and regulatory requirements in evaluating 
the Proposed Action, including but not limited to the ESA, Clean Water 
Act, Section 106 of the NHPA, and Executive Orders, including E.O. 
12898 Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority 
Populations and Low-Income Populations and E.O. 14096 on Revitalizing 
Our Nation's Commitment to Environmental Justice For All, and the 
recent Presidential Memorandum, Restoring Healthy and Abundant Salmon, 
Steelhead, and Other Native Fish Populations in the Columbia River 
Basin, 88 FR 67617 (October 2, 2023).
    The Co-Lead Agencies wi.ll also ensure government-to-government 
consultation with Tribes that honors the U.S. Government's longstanding 
commitments to Tribal Nations.
    6. Schedule for the Decision-Making Process. To the extent 
feasible, the Co-Lead Agencies will complete the SEIS in compliance 
with the deadlines and schedules set forth in 40 Code of Federal 
Regulations (CFR) 1501.10(b). The draft SEIS will be available for 
public review and comment. A 45-day public review period will be 
provided for interested parties and agencies to review and comment on 
this draft document. All interested parties are encouraged to respond 
to this Notice of Intent and provide a current address if they wish to 
be notified of the Draft SEIS circulation. The Co-Lead Agencies would 
issue a decision at the conclusion of the NEPA process, in accordance 
with 40 CFR 1506.10. Corps, Reclamation, and Bonneville would also 
determine how to proceed consistent with their Section 7 obligations 
under the ESA and any resulting biological opinions in accordance with 
50 CFR 402.15.
    7. Scoping Process/Public Involvement. The Co-Lead Agencies invite 
all affected Federal, State, and local agencies, affected Tribes, other 
interested parties, and the general public to participate in the NEPA 
process during development of the SEIS. Three (3) virtual public 
scoping meetings will be held the week of February 10, 2025. The 
specific dates, times, and meeting information will be published on the 
project website: https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/CRSO/. Additional 
public meetings will be scheduled after release of the draft SEIS.
    The Co-Lead Agencies are issuing this Notice of Intent to: (1) 
Advise other Federal and State agencies, Tribes, and the public of 
their plan to analyze effects related to system operations, maintenance 
and configuration; (2) obtain suggestions and information that may 
inform the scope of issues to evaluate in the SEIS; and (3) provide 
notice and request public input on potential effects on historic 
properties from system operations, maintenance and configuration due to 
potential modification of the undertaking in accordance with section 
106 of the NHPA (36 CFR 800.2(d)(3) and 800.8(c)(5)). The Co-Lead 
agencies will also identify any cooperating and participating agencies 
that the Co-Lead agencies may require information from to facilitate 
their future decision after completion of the Notice of Intent scoping 
period.

William C. Hannan,
Brigadier General, US Army, Division Commander.
Jennifer Carrington,
Regional Director, Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region, Bureau of 
Reclamation.
[FR Doc. 2024-29936 Filed 12-17-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3720-58-P
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