99-20765. Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and Notice of Scoping Meetings, Site Visit, and Soliciting Scoping Comments

[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 154 (Wednesday, August 11, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 43697-43698]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-20765]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission


Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement and 
Notice of Scoping Meetings, Site Visit, and Soliciting Scoping Comments

August 5, 1999.
    Take notice that the following hydroelectric application has been 
filed with the Commission and is available for public inspection:
    a. Type of Application: New Major License.
    b. Project No: 2055-010.
    c. Date filed: November 24, 1998.
    d. Applicant: Idaho Power Company.
    e. Name of Project: C.J. Strike.
    f. Location: On the Snake River in Owyhee County, Idaho, between 
the towns of Grandview and Bruneau. This project utilizes about 3,000 
acres of federal lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
    g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. Secs. 791(a)-
825(r).
    h. Applicant Contact: Lewis Wardle, Hydro Relicensing Department, 
Idaho Power Company, P.O. Box 70, Boise, ID 83707, [phone].
    i. FERC Contact: John Blair, [e-mail]. (202) 219-
2845.
    j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: October 15, 1999.
    All documents (original and eight copies) should be filed with: 
David P. Boergers, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure require all 
intervenors filing documents with the Commission to serve a copy of 
that document on each person whose name appears on the official service 
lists for the projects. Further, if an intervenor files comments or 
documents with the Commission relating to the merits of an issue that 
may affect the responsibilities of a particular resource agency, they 
must also serve a copy of the document on that resource agency.
    k. Status of environmental analysis: This application is not ready 
for environmental analysis at this time.
    l. Description of the Project: 
    The project consists of the following existing facilities: (1) A 
3,220-foot-long earthfill dam with a maximum height of 115 feet, which 
includes a 340-foot-wide and 78-foot-high reinforced concrete spillway 
consisting of eight 34-foot-wide bays; (2) a 55-foot-wide, 158-foot-
long, and 65-foot-high reinforced concrete intake structure located at 
the left abutment of the same, consisting of three intakes; (3) three 
riveted steel penstocks connecting the intakes to the generating units; 
(4) a 198-foot-long, 64-foot-wide, and 68-foot-high reinforced concrete 
powerhouse, located at the left abutment of the dam, containing 3 
vertical fixed-blade turbines with a total nameplate capacity of 82.8 
megawatts; (5) a reservoir extending about 32 miles upstream on the 
Snake River and about 12 miles upstream on the Bruneau River, with a 
surface area of about 7,500 acres at normal water surface elevation of 
2,455 feet above mean sea level; and (6) two 138-kilovolt (kV) 
transmission lines extending from the project 65 miles northwesterly to 
the Caldwell terminal substation and about 25 miles northeasterly to 
the 138-kV lines near Mountain Home.
    m. Locations of the Application: A copy of the application is 
available for inspection and reproduction at the Commission's Public 
Reference Room, located at 888 First Street, NE, Room 2A, Washington, 
D.C. 20246, or by calling [phone]. This filing may be viewed on 
the web at http://www.ferc.fed.us/online/rims.htm (call 202-208-2222 
for assistance). A copy is also available for inspection and 
reproduction at the address in item h. above.
    n. Scoping Process: The Commission has determined that issuance of 
a new license for the C.J. Strike Project would constitute a major 
federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human 
environment; therefore, the Commission intends to prepare an 
environmental impact statement (EIS) on the project, in accordance with 
the National Environmental Policy Act.

Scoping Meetings

    The Commission will hold two scoping meetings, one in the morning 
and one in the evening, to help us

[[Page 43698]]

identify the scope of issues to be addressed in the EIS.
    The morning scoping meeting will focus on resource agency concerns, 
while the evening scoping meeting is primarily for public input. All 
interested individuals, organizations, and agencies are invited to 
attend the meetings, and to assist the staff in identifying the scope 
of the environmental issues that should be analyzed in the EIS. The 
times and locations of these meetings are as follows:

Morning Meeting: September 15, 1999, 9:00 a.m., Boise Centre, 850 West 
Front Street, Boise, Idaho, [phone].
Evening Meeting: September 15, 1999, 7:00 p.m., Boise Centre, 850 West 
Front Street, Boise, Idaho, [phone].

    To help focus discussions, we will distribute a Scoping Document 
(SD1) outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the EIS to parties 
on the Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 also will be 
available at the scoping meetings.

Site Visit

    Idaho Power Company and the Commission staff will conduct a project 
site visit on September 14, 1999. We will meet at 7:30 a.m. in the 
Visitor Parking lot of Idaho Power Company's headquarters, 1221 W. 
Idaho Street, Boise, Idaho. If you would like to attend, please call 
Lewis Wardle, Idaho Power Company, at [phone], no later than 
September 7, 1999.

Objectives

    At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the 
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the EIS; 
(2) solicit from the meeting participants all available information, 
especially quantifiable data, on the resources at issue; (3) encourage 
statements from experts and the public on issues that should be 
analyzed in the EIS, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in 
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource 
issues to be addressed in the EIS; and (5) identify those issues that 
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not 
require a detailed analysis.

Procedures

    The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become 
part of the formal record of the Commission's proceedings for these 
projects.
    Individuals, organizations, and agencies with environmental 
expertise and concerns are encouraged to attend the meeting and to 
assist the staff in defining and clarifying the issues to be addressed 
in the EIS.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-20765 Filed 8-10-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M