2926 Federal Register / Vol. 66, No. 9 / Friday, January 12, 2001 / Notices

PLACE: The meeting will be held at the

Best Western Brookings Inn, 1143

Chetco Avenue, Brookings, Oregon.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr.

Ronald A. Iverson, Project Leader, Fish

and Wildlife Service, 1829 South

Oregon Street, Yreka, California 96097,

telephone (530) 842–5763.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: For

background information on the Task

Force, please refer to the notice of their

initial meeting that appeared in the

Federal Register on July 8, 1987 (52 FR

25639).

Dated: January 5, 2001.

Mary Elle Mueller,

Acting California/Nevada Operations

Manager, California/Nevada Office, Fish and

Wildlife Service.

[FR Doc. 01–1022 Filed 1–11–01; 8:45 am]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs

Revised Notice of Intent To Prepare an

Environmental Impact Statement/

Environmental Impact Report for the

Torres Martinez-Calpine Power

Generating Facility, Riverside County,

California

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs,

Interior.

ACTION: Revised notice.

SUMMARY: This notice revises a notice

published on June 13, 2000, in the

Federal Register (65 FR 37163), which

informed the public that the Bureau of

Indian Affairs, in cooperation with the

Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians

and Calpine Corporation, intended to

gather information necessary to prepare

an Environmental Impact Statement

(EIS) for a power generating facility that

Calpine proposes to construct and

operate on 41.5 acres of the Torres

Martinez Indian Reservation in

Riverside County, California. The

purposes of this revised notice are to (1)

announce that the Bureau will be

preparing an Environmental Impact

Report (EIR) in conjunction with the

EIS; (2) to include in the project

description modifications made to the

project after the original notice was

published; and (3) to update the

environmental issues identified for the

project. Details on the changes are

included in a revised SUPPLEMENTARY

INFORMATION section. This notice also

announces a public scoping meeting for

the content of the EIS/EIR.

DATES: Comments on the scope and

implementation of this proposal must

arrive by February 12, 2001. The public

scoping meeting will be held on January

30, 2001, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.,

or until all attendees who wish to do so

have had the opportunity to register

their views.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry

written comments to Ronald M. Jaeger,

Regional Director, Pacific Region,

Bureau of Indian Affairs, 2800 Cottage

Way, Sacramento, California, 95825–

1846.

The January 30, 2001, public scoping

meeting will be held at the Tribal Hall,

Torres Martinez Indian Reservation, 66–

725 Martinez Road, Thermal, California.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

William Allan, (916) 978–6043, or Bobbi

Fletcher, (760) 397–9850.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Calpine

Corporation, through an agreement with

the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla

Indians, plans to construct, own and

operate a 600 megawatt natural gas-fired

power plant on a 41.5 acre parcel of

tribal trust land in Riverside County,

California, northeast of the town of

Mecca. The parcel is located along 62nd

Avenue, east of Johnson Street near the

Coachella Canal.

Natural gas is proposed to be supplied

to the plant by a new 11 to 17 mile gas

line extending north to a connection

point north of the I–10 Freeway.

Electricity produced by the plant would

be routed through an on-site substation

to the first point of junction with the

interconnected transmission system via

existing electrical transmission lines. To

relieve the potential for localized

transmission system congestion beyond

the point of first interconnection, the

project would also require construction

of a new electrical transmission line

segment between the site and a

substation in the city of Coachella, plus

improvements to several miles of

existing off-site transmission lines.

Cooling water for the power plant is

proposed to be obtained from the

Coachella Canal immediately east of the

site, or from an on-site groundwater

well. The plant would utilize a zerodischarge system, wherein cooling water

would be repeatedly cycled and then

evaporated in on-site evaporation

ponds.

The areas of environmental concern to

be addressed in the EIS/EIR include

agricultural, water, biological, mineral,

paleontological, visual/aesthetic and

cultural resources, geology, soils, traffic

and transportation, land use, noise, air

quality, public health and

infrastructure, environmental hazards,

hazardous materials and waste, worker

safety, socioeconomics/environmental

justice, and Indian trust assets. Others

may be added based on comments

received during the scoping process.

Public Comment Solicitation

As an alternative to submitting

written comments regarding the content

of the EIS/EIR to the location identified

in the ADDRESSES section, interested

persons may instead comment via the

Internet to billallan@bia.gov. Please

submit Internet comments as an ASCII

file, avoiding the use of special

characters and any form of encryption.

If you do not receive confirmation from

the system that your Internet message

was received, contact us directly at

(916) 978–6043.

Comments, including names and

home addresses of respondents, will be

available for public review at the

mailing address shown in the

ADDRESSES section, during regular

business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.,

Monday through Friday, except

holidays. Individual respondents may

request confidentiality. If you wish us to

withhold your name and/or address

from public review or from disclosure

under the Freedom of Information Act,

you must state this prominently at the

beginning of your written comment.

Such requests will be honored to the

extent allowed by law. We will not,

however, consider anonymous

comments. All submissions from

organizations or businesses, and from

individuals identifying themselves as

representatives or officials of

organizations or businesses, will be

made available for public inspection in

their entirety.

Authority

This notice is published in

accordance with section 1503.1 of the

Council on Environmental Quality

Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 through

1508), implementing the procedural

requirements of the National

Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as

amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), and

the Department of the Interior Manual

(516 DM 1–6), and is in the exercise of

authority delegated to the Assistant

Secretary—Indian Affairs by 209 DM 8.

Dated: January 9, 2001.

Michael Anderson,

Acting Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs.

[FR Doc. 01–1115 Filed 1–11–01; 8:45 am]

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