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Revised Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report for the Torres Martinez-Calpine Power Generating Facility, Riverside County, California

Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.

 [Federal Register: January 12, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 9)]
[Notices]
[Page 2926]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12ja01-120]

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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Bureau of Indian Affairs


Revised Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement/Environmental Impact Report for the Torres Martinez-Calpine
Power Generating Facility, Riverside County, California

AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.

ACTION: Revised notice.

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SUMMARY: This notice revises a notice published on June 13, 2000, in
the Federal Register (65 FR 37163), which informed the public that the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, in cooperation with the Torres Martinez
Desert Cahuilla Indians and Calpine Corporation, intended to gather
information necessary to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) for a power generating facility that Calpine proposes to
construct and operate on 41.5 acres of the Torres Martinez Indian
Reservation in Riverside County, California. The purposes of this
revised notice are to (1) announce that the Bureau will be preparing an
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in conjunction with the EIS; (2) to
include in the project description modifications made to the project
after the original notice was published; and (3) to update the
environmental issues identified for the project. Details on the changes
are included in a revised SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section. This
notice also announces a public scoping meeting for the content of the
EIS/EIR.

DATES: Comments on the scope and implementation of this proposal must
arrive by February 12, 2001. The public scoping meeting will be held on
January 30, 2001, from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., or until all attendees
who wish to do so have had the opportunity to register their views.

ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand carry written comments to Ronald M.
Jaeger, Regional Director, Pacific Region, Bureau of Indian Affairs,
2800 Cottage Way, Sacramento, California, 95825-1846.
    The January 30, 2001, public scoping meeting will be held at the
Tribal Hall, Torres Martinez Indian Reservation, 66-725 Martinez Road,
Thermal, California.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: William Allan, (916) 978-6043, or
Bobbi Fletcher, (760) 397-9850.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Calpine Corporation, through an agreement
with the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians, plans to construct,
own and operate a 600 megawatt natural gas-fired power plant on a 41.5
acre parcel of tribal trust land in Riverside County, California,
northeast of the town of Mecca. The parcel is located along 62nd
Avenue, east of Johnson Street near the Coachella Canal.
    Natural gas is proposed to be supplied to the plant by a new 11 to
17 mile gas line extending north to a connection point north of the I-
10 Freeway. Electricity produced by the plant would be routed through
an on-site substation to the first point of junction with the
interconnected transmission system via existing electrical transmission
lines. To relieve the potential for localized transmission system
congestion beyond the point of first interconnection, the project would
also require construction of a new electrical transmission line segment
between the site and a substation in the city of Coachella, plus
improvements to several miles of existing off-site transmission lines.
Cooling water for the power plant is proposed to be obtained from the
Coachella Canal immediately east of the site, or from an on-site
groundwater well. The plant would utilize a zero-discharge system,
wherein cooling water would be repeatedly cycled and then evaporated in
on-site evaporation ponds.
    The areas of environmental concern to be addressed in the EIS/EIR
include agricultural, water, biological, mineral, paleontological,
visual/aesthetic and cultural resources, geology, soils, traffic and
transportation, land use, noise, air quality, public health and
infrastructure, environmental hazards, hazardous materials and waste,
worker safety, socioeconomics/environmental justice, and Indian trust
assets. Others may be added based on comments received during the
scoping process.

Public Comment Solicitation

    As an alternative to submitting written comments regarding the
content of the EIS/EIR to the location identified in the ADDRESSES
section, interested persons may instead comment via the Internet to
billallan@bia.gov. Please submit Internet comments as an ASCII file,
avoiding the use of special characters and any form of encryption. If
you do not receive confirmation from the system that your Internet
message was received, contact us directly at (916) 978-6043.
    Comments, including names and home addresses of respondents, will
be available for public review at the mailing address shown in the
ADDRESSES section, during regular business hours, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30
p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. Individual respondents
may request confidentiality. If you wish us to withhold your name and/
or address from public review or from disclosure under the Freedom of
Information Act, you must state this prominently at the beginning of
your written comment. Such requests will be honored to the extent
allowed by law. We will not, however, consider anonymous comments. All
submissions from organizations or businesses, and from individuals
identifying themselves as representatives or officials of organizations
or businesses, will be made available for public inspection in their
entirety.

Authority

    This notice is published in accordance with section 1503.1 of the
Council on Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR Parts 1500 through
1508), implementing the procedural requirements of the National
Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.),
and the Department of the Interior Manual (516 DM 1-6), and is in the
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian
Affairs by 209 DM 8.

    Dated: January 9, 2001.
Michael Anderson,
Acting Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 01-1115 Filed 1-11-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-02-U

 
 

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