[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 237 (Monday, December 9, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Page 64861]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-31212]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Bonneville Power Administration
Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement
AGENCY: Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), Department of Energy
(DOE).
ACTION: Notice of Availability of Record of Decision (ROD).
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SUMMARY: The United States Entity (the Administrator of the Bonneville
Power Administration [BPA] and the Division Engineer, North Pacific
Division of the US Army Corps of Engineers [Corps]) has decided to
fulfill its obligation under the Columbia River Treaty (Treaty) between
the United States of America (United States) and Canada by delivering
Canada's Entitlement under the Treaty to points on the border between
Canada and the United States near Blaine, Washington and Nelway,
British Columbia (BC). Delivering the full Entitlement at existing
interconnections at those locations will require no new transmission
facilities in the United States or in Canada. However, construction of
cross-Cascades transmission in the United States would be accelerated,
to as early as 2005. Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement will begin
April 1, 1998.
The Treaty, signed in 1961, led to the construction of three
storage dams on the Columbia River system in Canada and one in the
United States. Under the Treaty, Canada and the United States equally
share the benefits of the additional power that can be generated at
dams downstream in the United States because of the storage at the
upstream Treaty reservoirs. Canada's half of the downstream power
benefits, the Canadian Entitlement (Entitlement), is calculated to be
approximately 1,200 to 1,500 megawatts (MW) of capacity and 550 to 600
average megawatts (aMW) of energy. Canada sold its share of the power
benefits for 30-year periods to a consortium of United States
utilities. The 30-year sale will begin to expire in 1998, when the
first installment of the Entitlement must be delivered to Canada. The
Treaty specifies that the Entitlement must be delivered to Canada at a
point on the border near Oliver, BC, unless the parties agree to other
arrangements. An interim agreement, signed in 1992, allowed the
Entitlement to be delivered over existing facilities between 1998 and
2003.
In the Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement Final Environmental
Impact Statement (DOE/EIS-0197, issued in January 1996), the United
States Entity evaluated the potential environmental impacts of a range
of alternatives for delivering the Entitlement to Canada, including
various combinations of delivery points, power purchases, and resource
development. Over a period of several years, the United States and
Canadian Entities made a concerted effort to find a mutually agreeable
alternative to delivery at Oliver on commercially reasonable terms. To
comply with the Treaty, the United States Entity needed to be able to
deliver the full Entitlement to Canada by March 31, 2003, when the
interim agreement expired. In a Record of Decision (ROD) issued March
12, 1996, the United States Entity documented its decision to deliver
the full Entitlement to Oliver. That decision reflected the inability
of the United States and Canadian Entities to agree to an alternative
arrangement to the Treaty-specified delivery point.
Delivery at Oliver would have required the construction and
operation of a new single circuit, 500-kilovolt line from Grand Coulee
or Chief Joseph Substation to the border. The United States Entity
issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to prepare the Oliver Delivery Project
EIS on March 25, 1996, and began scoping activities to support that
EIS.
Subsequent discussions have led to a mutually agreed upon
alternative for Entitlement delivery. The United States and Canadian
Entities are prepared to execute an Entity Agreement that would replace
delivery of the Entitlement to Oliver with delivery of the Entitlement
at existing transmission interconnections between the United States and
Canada in the vicinity of Blaine, Washington and Nelway, BC.
The proposed Entity Agreement will supersede and terminate the
interim agreement. The proposed Agreement does not address delivery of
the Entitlement in the United States. If the United States and Canadian
Entities propose delivery in the United States, the United States
Entity will review the Delivery of the Canadian Entitlement EIS to
ensure that the impacts are adequately analyzed. A decision to dispose
of the Entitlement in the United States would be the subject of an
additional United States Entity ROD.
This new ROD replaces the March 12, 1996 ROD and withdraws the NOI
for the Oliver Delivery Project EIS.
ADDRESS: Copies of the ROD and Environmental Impact Statement may be
obtained by calling BPA's toll-free document request line: 1-800-622-
4520.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Katherine Semple Pierce--EC,
Bonneville Power Administration, P.O. Box 3621, Portland, Oregon,
97208-3621, phone number (503) 230-3962, fax number (503) 230-5699.
Issued by the United States Entity in Portland, Oregon, on
November 8, 1996.
Randall W. Hardy,
Chair.
Bartholomew B. Bohn, III,
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
[FR Doc. 96-31212 Filed 12-6-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6450-01-P
