[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 222 (Friday, November 16, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 68816-68817]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-27929]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Bureau of Land Management
[L51010000.FX0000.LVRWA11A2990.LLAZP02000.XXX; AZA35079]
Notice of Availability of the Draft Environmental Impact
Statement for the Proposed Sun Valley to Morgan 500/230kV Transmission
Line Project (Formerly Called TS-5 to TS-9), Arizona, and the Draft
Bradshaw-Harquahala Resource Management Plan Amendment and Notice of
Public Hearings
AGENCY: Bureau of Land Management, Interior.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: In accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of
1969, as amended (NEPA), and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
of 1976, as amended (FLPMA), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has
prepared a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Proposed
Sun Valley to Morgan 500/230-kilovolt (kV) Transmission Line Project
(Project) and Draft Bradshaw-Harquahala Resource Management Plan (RMP)
amendment for the BLM Hassayampa Field Office, and by this notice is
announcing the opening of the comment period.
DATES: To ensure that comments will be considered, the BLM must receive
written comments on the Draft EIS and Draft RMP amendment within 90
days following the date the Environmental Protection Agency publishes
its Notice of Availability in the Federal Register. The BLM will hold
public hearings on the Draft EIS and Draft RMP amendment on December
11, 2012, in Peoria, Arizona; December 12 in Wittmann, Arizona; and
December 13 in Phoenix, Arizona. All of the public hearings will begin
with an open house at 5:30 p.m., followed by a presentation at 6 p.m.
Further details about these hearings and any other public involvement
activities will be published at least 15 days in advance through public
notices, media releases, and/or mailings.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods:
Web site: http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en.html.
Email: [email protected].
Fax: 623-580-5580.
Mail: BLM Phoenix District Office, Hassayampa Field
Office, Attention: Joe Incardine/Sun Valley-Morgan Project, 21605 North
7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona 85207-2929.
Copies of the Draft EIS and Draft RMP amendment are available in
the BLM Hassayampa Field Office at the above address.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joe Incardine, BLM National Project
Manager, telephone 801-539-4118; address BLM Phoenix District Office,
Hassayampa Field Office, 21605 North 7th Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona
85027-2929; email [email protected]. Persons who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 to contact the above
individual during normal business hours. The FIRS is available 24 hours
a day, 7 days a week, to leave a message or question with the above
individual. You will receive a reply during normal business hours.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Arizona Public Service Company (APS)
submitted a right-of-way (ROW) application to construct, operate, and
maintain a 500/230kV overhead transmission line from the Sun Valley
Substation to the Morgan Substation in Maricopa County. The Project
would be located on a combination of BLM-managed lands, Arizona State
Trust lands, and private lands in northern Maricopa County, northwest
of Phoenix, Arizona. The Project is an overhead transmission line,
approximately 38 miles long, on monopole structures. The BLM-managed
lands within the Project area are managed under the existing Bradshaw-
Harquahala Resource Management Plan (RMP).
Environmental and social concerns and issues were identified
through internal and public scoping. The issues addressed in the EIS
that shaped the Project's scope and alternatives include:
Need and reliability;
RMP amendment;
Project design features, mitigation measures, and
alternatives;
Air and climate;
Biological resources;
Cultural resources;
Health and safety;
Recreation;
Socioeconomic;
Scenic/Visual; and
Transportation and traffic.
In addition to the Proposed Action and No Action Alternative, three
Action Alternative routes and one sub-alternative route (as proposed by
the Arizona State Land Department) were analyzed in detail in the Draft
EIS. As proposed, the Project would require an RMP amendment because
the current RMP requires high-voltage transmission lines crossing BLM-
managed lands to be within designated utility corridors, and a utility
corridor for the proposed ROW on public lands was not established in
the current RMP, the proposed action is within a designated
transportation corridor. In addition, the Visual Resource Management
(VRM) class designation would need to be amended from Class III to
Class IV for those BLM-managed lands where views would be dominated by
the transmission line, and thus would not meet the objectives of the
current VRM designation. The VRM class would also be changed for those
BLM-managed public lands north and south of State Route (SR) 74
surrounding the proposed transmission line ROW (i.e., the existing
transportation corridor north of SR 74 and the key-shaped piece south
of SR 74) in order to avoid creating narrow linear strips with
different VRM classes.
An interdisciplinary approach was used to develop the Draft EIS in
order to consider the variety of resource issues and concerns
identified. An amendment to the Bradshaw Harquahala RMP would be based
upon the following planning criteria:
The amendment will be completed in compliance with FLPMA,
NEPA, and all other relevant Federal laws, Executive Orders, and
management policies of the BLM;
Where existing planning decisions are still valid, those
decisions will remain unchanged and be incorporated into the new
amendment; and
The amendment will recognize valid existing rights.
The BLM has identified a modified Proposed Action route crossing
BLM-managed lands as the Agency Preferred Alternative route for the
proposed transmission line, including best management practices and
mitigative measures. Mitigative measures could consist of minor route
deviations for micro-siting of structures or segments of the line at
the time of route engineering to reduce impacts to visual and other
sensitive resources. However, mitigative measures would still allow for
the transmission line route to remain within the Arizona Corporation
Commission-certificated route.
Under the Agency Preferred Alternative, the BLM would amend the RMP
to:
Designate a 200-foot-wide single-use utility corridor on
public lands managed by the BLM north of SR 74;
[[Page 68817]]
Designate a multi-use utility corridor on 1,021 acres of
public lands managed by the BLM south of SR 74 to address potential
future BLM management considerations; and
Change the existing VRM class designations of 2,362 acres
north of SR 74 and 1,013 acres south of SR 74 from Class III to Class
IV to allow for the newly established utility corridors.
Once the RMP were amended, the BLM would approve a 200-foot-wide
ROW within the newly designated utility corridor on public lands
managed by the BLM north of SR 74 and within the existing designated
utility corridor northeast of the Sun Valley Substation.
The BLM will utilize and coordinate the NEPA comment period to
satisfy the public involvement process for Section 106 of the National
Historic Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. 470) as provided for in 36 CFR
800.2(d)(3). Native American tribal consultations will be conducted in
accordance with policy, and tribal concerns, including impacts on
Indian trust assets, will be given due consideration. Federal, State,
and local agencies, along with other stakeholders that may be
interested or affected by the BLM's decisions on this project, are
invited to participate in the public comment process. The BLM has
determined that public hearings to solicit comments on the Draft EIS
are necessary. Accordingly, the BLM invites all interested persons to
participate in one of the following public hearings:
Public Hearing Locations
Centennial High School, 14388 North 79th Avenue, Peoria, Arizona
85381--December 11, 2012
Nadaburg Elementary School, 21419 West Dove Valley Road, Wittmann,
Arizona 85361--December 12, 2012
BLM National Training Center, 9828 North 31st Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona
85051--December 13, 2012
All public hearings begin with an open house at 5:30 p.m., followed
by a presentation at 6 p.m.
Interested parties are invited to present oral statements at the
hearings. For information on facilities or services for persons with
disabilities or to request special assistance at the hearing, contact
Ellen Carr at 480-629-4705 or email [email protected] or in
writing at 4700 South McClintock Drive, Tempe, Arizona 85282, at least
5 business days before the date of the hearing.
The hearings will be conducted in accordance with 455 DM 1 and the
BLM NEPA Handbook by a representative designated by the BLM.
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment--including your personal identifying
information--may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Authority: 40 CFR 1506.6, 40 CFR 1506.10, 43 CFR 1610.2.
Raymond Suazo,
State Director.
[FR Doc. 2012-27929 Filed 11-15-12; 8:45 am]
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