[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 98 (Friday, May 20, 2011)]
[Notices]
[Pages 29261-29263]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-12416]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Indian Affairs
Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for
the Proposed Campo Wind Energy Project, San Diego County, CA
AGENCY: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) as lead agency, with the Campo Band of
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Mission Indians (Tribe) as a cooperating agency, intends to gather
information necessary for preparing an Environmental Impact Statement
(EIS) for the proposed Campo Shu'luuk Wind Project, located on the
Campo Indian Reservation in southeastern San Diego County,
approximately 60 miles east of San Diego, California. Construction of
the Shu'luuk Wind Project within the Campo Reservation is subject to
BIA approval of a lease and sublease, which, as proposed, is a major
Federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(NEPA), as amended. A brief description of the proposed action and
areas of environmental concern are provided below in the SUPPLEMENTARY
INFORMATION section. This notice also announces a public scoping
meeting to identify potential issues, concerns and alternatives to be
considered in the EIS. The scoping process will include notice to the
public and Federal, State, local, and Tribal agencies of the proposed
action.
DATES: Written comments on the scope and implementation of this
proposal must arrive by July 5, 2011. A public scoping meeting will be
held June 21, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., or until the last public
comment is received. A second public scoping meeting will be held on
June 22, 2011, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. or until the last public comment
is received.
ADDRESSES: You may mail or hand-carry written comments to Robert Eben,
Superintendent, Southern California Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs,
1451 Research Park Drive, Riverside, California 92507. Please include
your name, caption, return address and ``EIS Scoping Comments, Shu'luuk
Wind Project, San Diego County, California,'' on the first page of your
written comments. The June 21 meeting will be held at the Mountain
Empire High School, 3305 Buckman Springs Road, Pine Valley, California.
The June 22 meeting will be located at the Campo Indian Reservation
Tribal Hall, 36190 Church Road, Campo, California.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Lenore Lamb, (951) 276-6624, Ext 254.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: BIA approval is required for a lease and
sublease to build and operate a commercial wind power generation
facility capable of generating up to 250 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
The project is planned to be constructed in phases. The initial phase
would generate up to 160 MW consisting of up to 80 turbines. The
project study area, for all phases, covers approximately 4660 acres on
the Campo Indian Reservation. The total area that would be disturbed by
the project would be substantially less. The turbines proposed for the
project would have a tower hub height of up to 328 feet and a rotor
diameter up to approximately 368 feet. Each turbine would be set on a
concrete foundation. Turbines would be connected by underground
electrical cable to a project substation. The substation would be sited
on a 2-acre area and would consist of a graveled, fenced area
containing transformer and switching equipment and an area for vehicle
parking. Up to 5 miles of new 3-phase 138 kV overhead interconnection
transmission circuit would be constructed within the Campo Indian
Reservation from the project collector substation to a San Diego Gas &
Electric (SDG&E) switchyard. The SDG&E switchyard and related
transmission line upgrades will be subject to approval by the
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the BIA. Other
required facilities, all located within the Campo Indian Reservation,
would include: Up to three permanent meteorological towers; temporary
material laydown areas during construction; temporary office areas; an
operations and maintenance building; approximately 25 miles of new
access roads; and a temporary concrete batch plant. This batch plant
would be centrally located within the existing Campo Materials facility
off of Church Road. The wind power generation facility would operate
year-round for a minimum of 25 years.
The purpose and need for the project are to: (1) Improve the
economic conditions of the Campo Band through the lease revenue and job
creation from development of wind power generation on the Campo
Reservation utilizing the renewable resource (wind) that is found in
abundance on the Campo Reservation; (2) make use of the Campo
Reservation's wind energy resources in an environmentally sound manner
to meet existing and future electricity demands to power approximately
40,000 homes in the Southern California region; (3) provide for
renewable energy sources as encouraged by the Federal Energy Policy Act
of 2005, California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), and the
State's renewable portfolio standard that mandates utilities to
increase procurement from eligible renewable energy resources; and (4)
reduce carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise be emitted from
fossil fuel powered electric generation sources by as much as 250,000
tons per year.
The EIS will analyze the potential environmental impacts of the
construction and operation of a proposed wind generation facility,
including access roads, a collector substation, as well as a switchyard
and transmission facilities that have previously been analyzed at the
programmatic level in the Draft Environmental Impact Report/
Environmental Impact Statement for the East County Substation, Tule
Wind, and Energia Sierra Juarez Gen-Tie Project (DOI Control No. DES
10-62). The EIS will be prepared in accordance with NEPA (42 U.S.C.
4321); the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) regulations (40 CFR
parts 1500-1508); Department of the Interior regulations (43 CFR part
46); and the BIA NEPA Handbook (59 IAM 3-H). A reasonable range of
alternatives to the proposed action including a no-action alternative,
will be analyzed in the EIS. The range of issues and alternatives may
be expanded based on comments and information received during the
scoping process. This notice initiates the public scoping process to
identify alternatives and relevant issues associated with the proposed
project.
Areas of environmental concern to be addressed in the EIS include
land use, wildlife (including birds and bats); vegetation (including
noxious and invasive weeds); threatened, endangered, and sensitive
plants and animals (including the Quino checkerspot butterfly); visual
resources; cultural resources; water quality; air quality (including
climate change); noise; emergency services (including fire management
and suppression); public health/environmental hazards; traffic and
transportation; hazardous waste; environmental justice and
socioeconomics.
Public Comment Availability
Comments, including names and addresses of respondents, will be
available for public review at the BIA address shown in the ADDRESSES
section, during business hours, 8 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 the
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.
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Authority
This notice is published in accordance with sections 1501.7, 1506.6
and 1508.22 of the Council of Environmental Quality Regulations (40 CFR
parts 1500 through 1508) and Sec. 46.305 of the Department of Interior
Regulations (43 CFR part 46), implementing the procedural requirements
of the NEPA of 1969, as amended (42 U.S.C. 4371 et seq.), and is in the
exercise of authority delegated to the Assistant Secretary--Indian
Affairs by 209 DM 8.
Dated: May 3, 2011.
Donald Laverdure,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs.
[FR Doc. 2011-12416 Filed 5-19-11; 8:45 am]
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