Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 238 / Tuesday, December 12, 1995 / Notices 63697

1 Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited

Partnership’s application was filed with the

Commission under Section 7 of the Natural Gas Act

and Part 157 of the Commission’s regulations.

2The appendices referenced in this notice are not

being printed in the Federal Register. Copies are

available from the Commission’s Public Reference

and Files Maintenance Branch, 888 First Street,

N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426, or call (202) 208–

1371. Copies of the appendices were sent to all

those receiving this notice in the mail.

14, 1994, order in Docket No. ER94–

1672–000.

On November 13, 1995, Power

Clearinghouse Inc. filed certain

information as required by the

Commission’s May 11, 1995, order in

Docket No. ER95–914–000.

Standard Paragraph

E. Any person desiring to be heard or

to protest said filing should file a

motion to intervene or protest with the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,

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

20426, in accordance with Rules 211

and 214 of the Commission’s Rules of

Practice and Procedure (18 CFR 385.211

and 18 CFR 385.214). All such motions

or protests should be filed on or before

the comment date. Protests will be

considered by the Commission in

determining the appropriate action to be

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.

Lois D. Cashell,

Secretary.

[FR Doc. 95–30200 Filed 12–11–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P

[Docket No. CP95–375–000]

Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited

Partnership; Notice of Intent To

Prepare an Environmental Assessment

for the Proposed Security Loop I

Project and Request for Comments on

Environmental Issues

December 6, 1995.

The staff of the Federal Energy

Regulatory Commission (FERC or

Commission) will prepare an

environmental assessment (EA) that will

discuss the environmental impacts of

the construction and operation of the

facilities proposed in the Security Loop

I Project.1 This EA will be used by the

Commission in its decision-making

process to determine whether an

environmental impact statement is

necessary and whether to approve the

project.

Summary of the Proposed Project

Great Lakes Gas Transmission Limited

Partnership (Great Lakes) requests

Commission authorization, in Docket

No. CP95–375–000, to construct and

operate one segment of approximately

13.8 miles of 36-inch-diameter mainline

loop in Charlevoix and Otsego Counties,

Michigan. Great lakes wants to complete

the looping of a portion of its 973-milelong mainline. In addition, Great Lakes

proposes to modify the existing piping

at the Boyne Falls Compressor Station to

accommodate the new loop. No

additional compression is proposed.

The proposed project would provide

increased system reliability and

flexibility for Great Lakes’ customers,

and would facilitate maintenance on the

Great lakes system.

The general location of the proposed

facilities is shown in appendix 1.

Detailed project maps are shown in

appendix 2 2.

Land Requirements for Construction

The proposed loop would be built

adjacent and parallel to the existing

right-of-way. Great Lakes intends to use

a 100-foot-wide construction right-ofway for most of the project. About 50

feet of the planned 100-foot width

would be on existing right-of-way.

Consequently, about 50 feet of new

clearing would be required. Following

construction, about 25 feet of the

construction right-of-way would be

allowed to revert to its former land use.

A 55-foot-wide construction right-ofway would be used for the 2.65 miles

of state forest land. About 15 feet of the

55-foot width would be on existing

right-of-way. Of the 40 feet of new

clearing that would be required, about

20 feet would be allowed to revert to

forest use.

Additional working space would be

required adjacent to the planned

construction right-of-way at road and

other utility line crossings, wetland

crossings, in areas of steep side slopes,

and at the beginning and end of the

proposed loop.

The EA Process

The National Environmental Policy

Act (NEPA) requires the Commission to

take into account the environmental

impacts that could result from an action

whenever it considers the issuance of a

Certificate of Public Convenience and

Necessity. NEPA also requires us to

discover and address concerns the

public may have about proposals. We

call this ‘‘scoping’’. The main goal of the

scoping process is to focus the analysis

in the EA on the important

environmental issues. By this Notice of

Intent, the Commission requests public

comments on the scope of the issues it

will address in the EA. All comments

received are considered during the

preparation of the EA. State and local

government representatives are

encouraged to notify their constituents

of this proposed action and encourage

them to comment on their areas of

concern.

The EA will discuss impacts that

could occur as a result of the

construction and operation of the

proposed project under these general

headings:

• Soils.

• Wetlands.

• Land use.

• Vegetation and wildlife.

We do not believe that the proposed

project will have any impacts on

geology, water resources, endangered

and threatened species, cultural

resources, air quality and noise, and

hazardous waste.

We will evaluate possible alternatives

to the proposed project or portions of

the project, and make recommendations

on how to lessen or avoid impacts on

the various resource areas.

Our independent analysis of the

issues will be in the EA. Depending on

the comments received during the

scoping process, the EA may be

published and mailed to Federal, state,

and local agencies, public interest

groups, interested individuals, affected

landowners, newspapers, libraries, and

the Commission’s official service list for

this proceeding. A comment period will

be allotted for review if the EA is

published. We will consider all

comments on the EA before we

recommend that the Commission

approve or not approve the project.

Currently Identified Environmental

Issues

We have already identified several

issues that we think deserve attention

based on a preliminary review of the

proposed facilities and the

environmental information provided by

Great Lakes. Keep in mind that this is

a preliminary list. The list of issues may

be added to, subtract from, or changed

based on your comments and our

analysis. Issues are:

• One wetland would be crossed.

• A 100-foot-wide construction rightof-way is proposed.

• About 9.6 miles of the proposed

pipeline right-of-way would cross

forestland, resulting in the clearing of

about 54.6 acres of forest.

• Approximately 11 percent of the

proposed right-of-way would cross

sandy soils within are considered highly
63698 Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 238 / Tuesday, December 12, 1995 / Notices

1See Appendix A for a listing of the tariff sheets

filed by each pipeline.

erodible soils by the Natural Resources

Conservation Service.

• A total of 18.3 acres of public lands,

including the Mackinaw State Forest,

would be disturbed by the proposed

construction right-of-way.

• Two residences are within 50 feet of

the proposed construction right-of-way.

In addition, a garage and a storage

building are within 50 feet of the

proposed construction right-of-way.

• The proposed construction right-ofway would cross 1.8 miles of Woodland

Heights Estates, a proposed residential

development.

Public Participation

You can make a difference by sending

a letter addressing your specific

comments or concerns about the project.

You should focus on the potential

environmental effects of the proposal,

alternatives to the proposal (including

alternative routes), and measures to

avoid or lessen environmental impact.

The more specific your comments, the

more useful they will be. Please follow

the instructions below to ensure that

your comments are received and

properly recorded:

• Address your letter to: Lois Cashell,

Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory

Commission, 888 First Street, N.E.,

Washington, D.C. 20426;

• Reference Docket No. CP95–375–

000;

• Send a copy of your letter to: Mr.

Jeff Gerber, EA Project Manager, Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission—PR

11.2, 888 First Street, N.E., Washington,

D.C. 20426; and

• Mail your comments so that they

will be received in Washington, D.C. on

or before January 5, 1996.

If you wish to receive a copy of the

EA, you should request one from Mr.

Gerber at the above address.

Becoming an Intervenor

In additional to involvement in the

EA scoping process, you may want to

become an official party to the

proceeding or become an ‘‘intervenor’’.

Among other things, intervenors have

the right to receive copies of caserelated Commission documents and

filings by other intervenors. Likewise,

each intervenor must provide copies of

its filings to all other parties. If you

want to become an intervenor you must

file a motion to intervene according to

Rule 214 of the Commission’s Rules of

Practice and Procedure (18 CFR

385.214) (see appendix 3).

The date for filing of timely motions

to intervene in this proceeding has

passed. Therefore, parties now seeking

to file late interventions must show

good cause, as required by section

385.214(b)(3), why this time limitation

should be waived. Environmental issues

have been viewed as good cause for late

intervention. You do not need

intervenor status to have your scoping

comments considered.

Additional information about the

proposed project is available from Mr.

Jeff Gerber, EA Project Manager, at (202)

208–1121.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.

[FR Doc. 95–30207 Filed 12–11–95; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6717–01–M

[TM96–3–20–000]

Algonquin Gas Transmission

Company, et al.; Notice of Proposed

Changes in FERC Gas Tariff

December 6, 1995.

Take notice that on November 30,

1995 and December 1, 1995, the thirtyfive natural gas pipeline companies

captioned above have each filed tariff

sheets to establish the revised Gas

Research Institute (GRI) surcharges

effective January 1, 1996, for their

respective transportation rates.1 The

proposed effective date of the tariff

sheets is January 1, 1996.

The natural gas companies state that

the tariff sheets listed in the Appendix

A of this notice are being filed pursuant

to the ‘‘Opinion and Order Approving

Gas Research Institute’s Second Year of

its 1995–1996 Research, Development

and Demonstration Program, Related

Five-Year Research and Development

Plan for 1996–2000, and Funding for

1996 RD&D Activities’’ issued by the

Commission in Docket No. RP95–374–

000 on October 13, 1995.

Any person desiring to be heard or to

protest any of these filings should file a

motion to intervene or protest with the

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,

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

20426, in accordance with Section

385.214 and 385.211 of the

Commission’s Rules and Regulations.

Pursuant to Section 154.210 of the

Commission’s regulations, all such

motions or protests must be filed not

later than 12 days after the date of the

filings noted above. Protests will be

considered by the Commission in

determining the appropriate action to be

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 the filings are on file with the

Commission and are available for public

inspection in the Public Reference

Room.

Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,

Acting Secretary.