[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:
Identify significant environmental issues;
Determine the depth of analysis appropriate to each issue;
Identify the resource issues not requiring detailed
analysis; and
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
