[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 99 (Tuesday, May 21, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25488-25489]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-12677]



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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Project No. 10805-002, WI]


Midwest Hydraulic Company; Notice of Site Visit and Scoping 
Pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969

May 15, 1996.
    On April 23, 1993, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission 
(Commission) issued a letter accepting the Midwest Hydraulic Company's 
application for license for the Hatfield Project, located on the Black 
River in Jackson and Clark Counties, Wisconsin.
    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:
    <bullet> Identify significant environmental issues;
    <bullet> Determine the depth of analysis appropriate to each issue;
    <bullet> Identify the resource issues not requiring detailed 
analysis; and
    <bullet> 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 covered in the environmental document pursuant to the 
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). The document entitled 
``Scoping Document I'' (SDI) 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. SDI 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.

[[Page 25489]]

Project Site Visit

    The applicant and the Commission staff will conduct a site visit of 
the Hatfield Project on June 6, 1996, at 9:00 a.m. They will meet at 
the powerhouse of the project site, located on Powerhouse Road, in the 
city of Hatfield, Jackson and Clark Counties, Wisconsin 54754. All 
interested individuals, NGO's and agencies are invited to attend. All 
participants are responsible for their own transportation and should 
bring a hard hat. For more details, interested parties should contact 
Andrew Blystra, the applicant contact, at (616) 394-0606, prior to the 
site visit date.

Scoping Meetings

    The Commission staff will conduct two scoping meetings. All 
interested individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to 
attend and assist the staff in identifying the scope of environmental 
issues that should be analyzed in the NEPA document.
    The agency scoping meeting will be held on June 5, 1996, from 1:00 
p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, on 
Highway 54, Black River Falls, Wisconsin 54615.
    The public scoping meeting will be held on June 6, 1996, from 7:00 
p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Jackson County Bank Community Room, 8 Main 
Street, Black River Falls, Wisconsin 54615.
    The Commission will decide, based on the application, and agency 
and public comments at the scoping session, whether licensing the 
Hatfield Project constitutes a major federal action significantly 
impacting the quality of the human environment. Irrespective of the 
Commission's determination to prepare an environmental assessment or an 
environmental impact statement for the Hatfield Project, the Commission 
staff will not hold additional scoping meetings other than those 
scheduled, as listed above.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the Commission staff will: (1) summarize 
the environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the 
NEPA document; (2) solicit from the meeting participants all available 
information, especially quantified data, on the resources at issue, and 
(3) encourage statements from experts and the public on issues that 
should be analyzed in the NEPA document. Individuals, organizations, 
and agencies with environmental expertise and concerns are encouraged 
to attend the meetings and to assist the staff in defining and 
clarifying the issues to be addressed.

Meeting Procedures

    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and become a part 
of the formal record of the Commission proceeding on the Hatfield 
Project. Individuals presenting statements at the meetings will be 
asked to identify themselves for the record.
    Concerned parties are encouraged to offer us verbal guidance during 
public meetings. Speaking time allowed for individuals will be 
determined before each meeting, based on the number of persons wishing 
to speak and the approximate amount of time available for the session, 
but all speakers will be provided at least 5 minutes to present their 
views.
    All those attending the meeting are urged to refrain from making 
any communications concerning the merits of the application to any 
member of the Commission staff outside of the established process for 
developing the record as stated in the record of the proceeding.
    Persons choosing not to speak but wishing to express an opinion, as 
well as speakers unable to summarize their positions within their 
allotted time, may submit written statements for inclusion in the 
public record 15 days after June 6, 1996.
    All filings should contain an original and 14 copies. Failure to 
file an original and 14 copies may result in appropriate staff not 
receiving the benefit of your comments in a timely manner. See 18 CFR 
4.34(h). In addition, commenters may submit a copy of their comments on 
a 3\1/2\-inch diskette formatted for MS-DOS based computers. In light 
of our ability to translate MS-DOS based materials, the text need only 
be submitted in the format and version that it was generated (i.e., MS 
Word, WordPerfect 5.1/5.2, ASCII, etc.). It is not necessary to 
reformat word processor generated text to ASCII. For Macintosh users, 
it would be helpful to save the documents in Macintosh word processor 
format and then write them to files on a diskette formatted for MS-DOS 
machines. All comments should be submitted to the Office of the 
Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, 
N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426, and should clearly show the following 
captions on the first page: Hatfield Project, FERC No. 10805.
    Further, interested persons are reminded of the Commission's Rules 
of Practice and Procedures, requiring parties or interceders (as 
defined in 18 CFR 385.2010) to file documents on each person whose name 
is on the official service list for this proceeding. See 18 CFR 
4.34(b).
    The Commission staff will consider all written comments and may 
issue a Scoping Document II (SDII). SDII will include a revised list of 
issues, based on the scoping sessions.
    For further information regarding the scoping process, please 
contact Christopher Metcalf, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 
Office of Hydropower Licensing, 888 First Street NE., Washington, DC 
20426 at (202) 219-2810.
Lois D. Cashell,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 96-12677 Filed 5-20-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M