[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 185 (Friday, September 24, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 51751-51752]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-24865]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
Notice of Scoping Meetings and Site Visits and Soliciting Scoping
Comments
September 20, 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.: 2566-010.
c. Date Filed: March 30, 1999.
d. Applicant: Consumers Energy Company.
e. Name of Project: Webber Hydroelectric Project.
f. Location: On the Grand River, in Ionia County, near the City of
Portland, Michigan. The project would not utilize federal lands.
g. Filed Pursuant to: Federal Power Act, 16 U.S.C. 791(a)-825(r).
h. Applicant Contact: David Battige, Consumers Energy Company,
Hydro Operations, 330 Chestnut Street, Cadillac, MI 49601, (616) 779-
5506.
i. FERC Contact: Tom Dean, thomas.dean@ferc.fed.us, (202) 219-2778.
j. Deadline for filing scoping comments: November 22, 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
list for the project. Further, if an intervenors 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 32-foot-high, 1,200-foot-long dam
comprising: (a) a 157-foot-long concrete powerhouse section, (b) a 313-
foot-long concrete spillway with 10 Taintor gates and one hydraulic
flap gate, and (c) two earth embankment sections having a combined
total length of 730 feet; (2) a 7-mile-long reservoir having a 660-acre
surface area at a normal pool elevation of 684,4 feet USGS; (3) a
powerhouse containing two generating units with a total installed
capacity of 3,250 kW; and (4) other appurtenances.
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,
DC 20246, or by calling (202) 208-1371. The application may be viewed
on the web at http://www.ferc.fed.us/online/rims.htm (call
[[Page 51752]]
(202) 208-2222 for assistance). A copy is also available for inspection
and reproduction at the address in item h above.
The Commission intends to prepare a Multiple Project Environmental
Assessment (MPEA) for the relicensing of the Webber Project and the
licensing of the Portland Municipal Project No. 11616, in accordance
with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. The MPEA will
consider both site-specific and cumulative environmental effects, if
any, of the proposed action and reasonable alternatives, and will
include an economic, financial, and engineering analysis.
Scoping Meetings
The Commission will hold two scoping meetings, one in the daytime
and one in the evening, to help us identify the scope of issues to be
addressed in the MPEA. The daytime 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 one or both of the meetings, and to
assist the staff in identifying the environmental issues that should be
addressed in the MPEA.
The evening meeting will be on Wednesday, October 20, 1999,
beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Portland High School auditorium, located
at 1100 Ionia Road, Portland, Michigan. The morning meeting will be
held on Thursday, October 21, 1999 beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the
Lansing Center, Room 202, located at 333 East Michigan Avenue, Lansing,
Michigan.
To help focus discussions, we will distribute a Scoping Document
(SD1) outlining the subject areas to be addressed in the MPEA to
parties on the Commission's mailing list. Copies of the SD1 also will
be available at the scoping meetings.
Site Visit
The applicant and the Commission staff will conduct project site
visits on Wednesday, October 20, 1999, starting at 10:00 a.m. We will
meet at the parking lot next to the Portland Dam powerhouse and fish
ladder off Lyons Road. If you plan to attend the site visit, please
call David Battige, Consumers Energy Company, at (616) 779- 5506, no
later than October 13, 1999.
Objectives
At the scoping meetings, the staff will: (1) Summarize the
environmental issues tentatively identified for analysis in the MPEA;
(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 MPEA, including viewpoints in opposition to, or in
support of, the staff's preliminary views; (4) determine the resource
issues to be addressed in the MPEA; and (5) identify those issues that
require a detailed analysis, as well as those issues that do not
require a detailed analysis.
The meetings will be recorded by a stenographer and will become
part of the formal record of the Commission's proceeding on the
project. Individuals presenting statements at the meetings will be
asked to sign in before the meeting starts and to clearly identify
themselves for the record.
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
in the MPEA.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 99-24865 Filed 9-23-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M
